landing, General Howe issued a proclamation promising that private
property should be respected, and offering pardon and protection to all
who should submit to him, but, as the American army was at hand, the
proclamation produced little effect.

Washington distinctly understood the nature of the contest in which he
was engaged, and, sensible of the inferiority of his raw and disorderly
army to the veteran troops under Howe, he wished to avoid a general
engagement, but aware of the effect which the fall of Philadelphia
would produce on the minds of the people, determined to make every
effort in order to retard the progress and defeat the aim of the royal
army.

Accordingly, he marched to meet General Howe, who, from want of horses,
many of which had perished in the voyage, and from other causes, was
unable to proceed from the head of the Elk before the 3d of September
(1777). On the advance of the royal array, Washington retreated across
Brandywine creek, which falls into the Delaware at Wilmington. He took
post with his main body opposite Chad's ford, where it was expected the
British would attempt the passage, and ordered General Sullivan, with a
detachment, to watch the fords above. He sent General Maxwell with
about 1,000 light troops, to occupy the high ground on the other side
of the Brandywine, to skirmish with the British, and retard them in
their progress.

On the morning of the 11th of September, the British army advanced in
two columns; the right, under General Knyphausen, marched straight to
Chad's ford; the left, under Cornwallis, accompanied by Howe and
Generals Grey, Grant, and Agnew, proceeded by a circuitous route toward
a point named the Forks, where the two branches of the Brandywine