On September 11, 1777, part of the Continental Army was positioned at Sandy Hollow, part of the Brandywine Battlefield National Historic Landmark, to stop British forces advancing toward Philadelphia to capture the city. The meadow and patches of forest there remain much as they were during the colonists' struggle for independence from Britain. In the chaos of battle, an army's likely success depended on keeping its line of soldiers and musket fire intact, and a regimental flag marked a regiment's position in the smoke-filled, noisy battlefield. The Brandywine flag was carried by Captain Robert Wilson's company of the 7th Pennsylvania Regiment and took its name from its use in the Battle of the Brandywine. It was red, with a red and white American flag image in the canton. Some stories indicate that it may also have flown earlier at the Battle of Cooch's Bridge in Delaware on September 3, 1777, and Captain Wilson may have brought it as well to the Battle of Paoli on September 21, 1777, and the Battle of Germantown on October 4, 1777.