During the Revolutionary War, local residents took important actions in support of the Patriot cause. Squire Thomas Cheyney warned General Washington about enemy movements at the Brandywine River, and although the Americans lost the Battle of the Brandywine, that information may have helped prevent the war from being lost. Persifor Frazer was captured there by the British, who also tried to storm his home for supplies, while his wife Mary "Polly" Frazer defended their home and her husband's reputation as a Patriot. Throughout the war, she carried supplies to troops at Valley Forge and smuggled information from her jailed husband to General Washington. When British soldiers invaded the home of Anne Hemphill while her husband Joseph Hemphill was away fighting for the Patriots, they forced her to cook for them all night and then tried to take all her food, but Anne climbed onto their wagon and told them they would have to take her too, so the soldiers left the food behind.