Brandywine Creek
Downtown Wilmington, Delaware, is surrounded by several pretty waterways. This, for instance, is Brandywine Creek, an attractive little stream that flows into Delaware from Pennsylvania and meets the Christina River a mile or so to the right, just before the Christina flows into the Delaware. There's a nice little park that runs along the Brandywine through here, and I'd probably spend a lot of time along this stream if I found myself living in Wilmington.
Historically, Brandywine Creek was the site of one of the more significant battles in what I think of as the first phase of the Revolutionary War. This was September of 1777, when General William Howe was still marginally in charge of the British forces. Howe's army had hopped on the boats at Sandy Hook and sailed down around what we now called the Delmarva Peninsula into Chesapeake Bay, then disembarked in Maryland and made a dash for Philadelphia. General George Washington's Continental Army, which had just made a big show of how great they were to the people of Philadelphia, came out to meet Howe's army along this creek at a place now called Chadds Ford, about 8 miles upstream from here and just over the line into Pennsylvania. The battle was something of a disaster for the American forces -- an outcome far more common for Washington than a lot of people realize -- as the British managed to outflank and nearly surround them.
But Washington's great strength wasn't so much that he won battles as it was that he was graceful when he lost them. His army wasn't surrounded, and nobody just broke and ran in chaos. He had a small force led by Nathaniel Green and the Marquis de Lafayette provide enough cover for a well-organized retreat, and the Continental Army lived to fight another day.
Incidentally, this is where Lafayette took a musket ball to the leg, though he kept up the fight, providing cover for the retreat almost until he fell off his horse. This endeared him to Washington and gave Lafayette something to brag about to his friends back in France.
Brandywine Creek
Downtown Wilmington, Delaware, is surrounded by several pretty waterways. This, for instance, is Brandywine Creek, an attractive little stream that flows into Delaware from Pennsylvania and meets the Christina River a mile or so to the right, just before the Christina flows into the Delaware. There's a nice little park that runs along the Brandywine through here, and I'd probably spend a lot of time along this stream if I found myself living in Wilmington.
Historically, Brandywine Creek was the site of one of the more significant battles in what I think of as the first phase of the Revolutionary War. This was September of 1777, when General William Howe was still marginally in charge of the British forces. Howe's army had hopped on the boats at Sandy Hook and sailed down around what we now called the Delmarva Peninsula into Chesapeake Bay, then disembarked in Maryland and made a dash for Philadelphia. General George Washington's Continental Army, which had just made a big show of how great they were to the people of Philadelphia, came out to meet Howe's army along this creek at a place now called Chadds Ford, about 8 miles upstream from here and just over the line into Pennsylvania. The battle was something of a disaster for the American forces -- an outcome far more common for Washington than a lot of people realize -- as the British managed to outflank and nearly surround them.
But Washington's great strength wasn't so much that he won battles as it was that he was graceful when he lost them. His army wasn't surrounded, and nobody just broke and ran in chaos. He had a small force led by Nathaniel Green and the Marquis de Lafayette provide enough cover for a well-organized retreat, and the Continental Army lived to fight another day.
Incidentally, this is where Lafayette took a musket ball to the leg, though he kept up the fight, providing cover for the retreat almost until he fell off his horse. This endeared him to Washington and gave Lafayette something to brag about to his friends back in France.