General Wayne’s Encampment

Wayne’s force of 2200 men arrived on this ground during the afternoon of September 19, 1777, and remained here for the next 30 hours as they prepared to march against the British camp at Tredyffrin. Threatening weather and delayed reinforcements kept them in place on the evening of September 20, and they built shelters called booths or wigwams to protect their ammunition from the rain. After dark, having received two warnings that he might be attacked, Wayne doubled the number of pickets and sent out horsemen to patrol the roads. Intelligence that Wayne intended to attack the British rear led to a plan to surprise him, and the attack was entrusted to Major-General Charles Grey. About 1200 British troops, ordered to remove their musket flints and rely solely on the bayonet, moved silently toward Wayne’s position, while Musgrave’s force of 600 advanced toward the Paoli Tavern to block an American retreat in that direction; a squad from this detachment searched Waynesborough for Wayne but did not disturb the women or their property. Two miles north of camp, one of Wayne’s horse patrols spotted the British on Swedesford Road, challenged them, fired, and returned with warning. Wayne immediately roused his soldiers and had them form by platoons in less than five minutes. When the British reached the Warren Tavern, they forced a blacksmith to guide them to the camp. At Picket Post #4 on the Lancaster Road, the sentries fired and exposed their position in the dark, and the British rushed in with bayonets, killing and wounding half of the pickets. The American infantry first stood in two-rank lines facing the front of camp, then wheeled into files and formed a column that marched through fence openings, while the artillery sped down the back of the camp along the tree line and through the fence openings to reach Sugartown Road.

Malvern, Pennsylvania · United States