At 4 am on September 11, 1777, in the Battle of Brandywine, British troops marched from Kennett Square toward Philadelphia while Gen. Washington placed many of his 13,000 troops along the eastern side of Brandywine Creek at Chadds Ford to defend the main road north to Chester and Philadelphia. As Gen. Howe’s 15,000 troops approached the American front, Cornwallis’ division marched 8 miles north, crossed the Brandywine at Jefferis Ford, and moved to attack Washington’s position from the flank and rear from Osborne Hill. At 2 pm, after reports of Gen. Howe’s division to the north, Washington ordered the divisions of Stirling and Stephen toward the Birmingham Meeting House, where the Americans tried to form a solid defensive line. Sullivan’s division climbed from the Brandywine River to close the gap on Stirling’s flank, but British Guards’ artillery and musket fire opened on them. Near Marshall’s regiment, the Grenadier Battalions advanced with fixed bayonets while the Brigade of Guards moved forward. Continental artillery fired on the Grenadiers and the British Light Infantry on Birmingham Road, and British artillery answered as smoke covered the fields and parts of the American line fell into disarray. The British Guards charged up the hill and Sullivan’s Continentals fled with the Guards in pursuit, while the Grenadiers charged Stirling’s troops; five times the Grenadiers drove them from the hill and the Continentals regained it before the American left flank finally gave way and a fighting retreat began. There were substantial casualties, the Birmingham Meeting served as a hospital for American and British wounded, and many of the dead on both sides were buried near where they fell and in the Birmingham burying ground. Although the colonists lost the battle, they proved to the British their ability and determination to fight.