Jax Stumpes: Brandywine Battlefield Park (7/27/2024)

Saturday, July 27, 2024

The heat wave has abated, and we need to keep hiking. We visited Brandywine Battlefield Park, commemorating the largest single-day land battle of the American Revolution. The battle involved nearly 30,000 soldiers over a ten-square mile area, on September 11, 1777. The park covers only 52 acres at the center of General George Washington's continental encampment.

West from the Visitor Center, we went downhill to cross
this bridge, then climbed up a steep hill

Ice house (belonging to the Ring House), where ice that was
cut from the river during the winter could be kept all summer

Benjamin Ring House (1731) belonged to a Quaker
farmer and mill operator, who would not have been
involved in war, yet George Washington used the home
as his headquarters during the Battle of Brandywine

The drive leads to a horse mount

Kitchen garden

Brandywine Baptist Church (organized 1715, church 1808)
is not part of the Brandywine Battlefield Park

Spring house below the Gilpin House hill

The Historic Sycamore Tree (Platanus
occidentalis) or "Lafayette Tree" is said to
be where 19-year old Marquis de Lafayette
rested after being wounded in the leg
during the Battle of Brandywine, his
first action in the American Revolution

However, after being injured, Lafayette remained to insure an organized retreat, then went to the Moravian town of Bethlehem with other wounded soldiers.

Kent with the large trunk of the sycamore tree

The Gideon Gilpin House (1754 with additions) belonged
to another Quaker farmer, and was NOT used as the quarters
for the Marquis de Lafayette, but rather became headquarters
for British General Howe in the afternoon of September 11

The British forces plundered the Gilpin property before going on to occupy Philadelphia.