Marched from Marcus
Hook at Reveille, proceeded through Chester, Derby and over Schuylkill and
arrived at Philadelphia at 2 P. M.
SOURCE: “Diary of
Lieutenant James McMichael,” William H. Egle, Editor, Pennsylvania
Archives, Second Series, Vol. XV: Journals and Diaries of the War of the
Revolution with Lists of Officers and Soldiers, 1775-1783, p. 196
Here, my dear,
passes an interval of several weeks, in which nothing happen'd worth
the time and paper it wou'd take to write it.1 The English, however,
in the interim, had taken possession of the city.
Second Day, October the 19th,
1777.
Now for new and
uncommon scenes. As I was lying in bed, and ruminating on past and present
events, and thinking how happy I shou'd be if I cou'd see you, Liddy came
running into the room, and said there was the greatest drumming, fifing, and
rattling of waggons that ever she had heard. What to make of this
we were at a loss. We dress'd and down stairs
in a hurry. Our wonder ceas'd.
The British had left
Germantown, and our Army was marching to take possession. It was the general
opinion that they wou'd evacuate the capital.2 Sister Betsy3
and myself, and G. E.4 went about half a mile from home, where we
cou'd see the army pass. Thee will stare at my going, but no impropriety in my
opine, or I wou'd not have gone. We made no great stay, but return'd with
excellent appetites for our breakfast.
Several officers
call'd to get some refreshment, but none of consequence till the afternoon.
Cousin Prissa5 and myself were sitting at the door; I in a green
skirt, dark short gown, &c. Two genteel men of the military order rode up
to the door: "Your servant, ladies," &c; ask'd if they cou'd have
quarters for Genl. Smallwood. Aunt Foulke thought she cou'd accommodate them as
well as most of her neighbours, - said they could. One of the officers
dismounted, and wrote
SMALLWOOD'S QUARTERS
over the door, which
secured us from straggling soldiers. After this he mounted his steed and rode
away.
When we were alone
our dress and lips were put in order for conquest, and the hopes of adventures
gave brightness to each before passive countenance.
Thee must be
told of a Dr. Gould,6 who, by accident, had made an
acquaintance with my father, — a sensible, conversible man, a Carolinian, — and
had come to bid us adieu on his going to that state. Daddy had prevailed upon
him to stay a day or two with us.
In the evening his
Generalship7 came with six attendants, which compos'd his family, a
large guard of soldiers, a number of horses and
baggage-waggons. The yard and house were in confusion, and glitter'd with
military equipments.
Gould was intimate
with Smallwood, and had gone into Jesse's to see him. While he was there, there
was great running up and down stairs, so I had an opportunity of seeing
and being seen, the former the most agreeable, to be sure. One person, in
particular, attracted my notice. He appear'd cross and reserv'd; but thee shall
see how agreeably disappointed I was.
Dr. Gould usher'd
the gentlemen into our parlour, and introduced them, "Gen'l Smallwood,
Capt. Furnival, Major Stodard, Mr. Prig, Capt. Finley,8 and Mr.
Clagan,9 Col. Wood, and Col. Line." These last two did not come
with the Gen'l. They are Virginians, and both indispos'd. The Gen'l and suite
are Marylanders.
Be assur'd I did not
stay long with so many men, but secur'd a good retreat, heart-safe, so far.
Some sup'd with us, others at Jesse's. They retir'd about ten, in good order.
How new is our
situation! I feel in good spirits, though surrounded by an Army, the house full
of officers, the yard alive with soldiers, — very peaceable sort of men, tho'.
They eat like other folks, talk like them, and behave themselves with elegance;
so I will not be afraid of them, that I won't.
Adieu. I am going to
my chamber to dream, I suppose, of bayonets and swords, sashes, guns, and
epaulets.
________________
1 We are unfortunately given nothing in
relation to the Battle of Germantown, which occurred October 4th, in
this interval. The omission is difficult to understand, becauses she alludes,
later, to "the battle of Germantown, and the horrors of that
day." — H. M. J.
2 On this date the British withdrew from
Germantown into Philadelphia, and the Americans moved down the Skippack Road,
and the roads adjacent, to take a nearer position. Washington's headquarters,
for some days, were at "James Morris's, on the Skippack road," and on
the 2d of November, at Whitemarsh, at the Emlen mansion hereafter
mentioned. It was the movement of troops down the
Morris road, no doubt, "half a mile away," — that Sally and her
friends went to see. — H. M. J.
3 ELIZABETH WISTER, Sally's sister, born
February 27, 1764.
4 GEORGE EMLEN, son of George and
Ann (Reckless) Emlen, was born in Philadelphia, February 25, 1741, and died
November 23, 1812. He was married to Sarah Fishbourne, daughter of William
and Mary (Talman) Fishbourne, at Pine Street Friends' Meeting, Philadelphia,
February 1, 1775. The Emlens had a country seat at Whitemarsh, fourteen miles
north of the city. This estate was purchased by George Emlen, Sr., a
wealthy Quaker merchant of Philadelphia, in 1745, and at his death,
January 3, 1776, it had come into possession of his widow, Ann Emlen,
his son George Emlen, Jr., and the other heirs. The Emlen mansion was used by
General Washington as his headquarters during the encampment of the
Continental Army at Whitemarsh, in the late autumn of 1777, and it
was here a few months later that Sally Wister visited and wrote part of the Journal.
The house is still standing near Camp Hill Station on the Reading Railroad. It
is now owned by the estate of the late Charles T. Aiman. — Phila.
Deeds, G. 7, p. 359; Emlen family records.
5 PRISCILLA FOULKE, daughter of William
and Hannah, and sister of Caleb, Amos, and Jesse; "Cousin "
simply by courtesy, as she was not of kin to Sally. She was born Oct.
3, 1744, and died Jan. 25, 1821, unmarried. — H. M. J.
6 DAVID GOULD, of Virginia, was appointed
Hospital Surgeon in the Continental Line, September 8, 1777, and Senior
Hospital Surgeon in Virginia, October 11, 1779. He died July 12, 1781,
"while on his way to Philadelphia to settle his accounts." (Heitman;
"American State Papers," xix., 21). Our journalist thus notes his
death, in the back part of the book containing her Journal:
"August,
1781. And must I again trace with my pen an account of the death of another of
our Northwales friends? The worthy Dr. Gould: — the last scene of his life was
clos'd at Hartford [Harford?] in Maryland. Clos'd forever those lips, from
which proceeded the most beautiful sentiments, cloath'd in the most elegant
expressions. Silent forever that silver tongue, that charm'd the listening
audience. Flown to happier regions that heart, where all the social virtues
resided, where disappointment shall never enter.
"I hope
“‘The hand of friendship rais'd his languid head
“‘And smooth'd the pillow of his dying bed.’”
7 WILLIAM SMALLWOOD, son of Bayne
and Priscilla (Heabard) Smallwood, was born in Maryland in 1732. His father was
a merchant and planter, at one time presiding officer of the
Court of Common Pleas, and also a member of the House of Burgesses;
his mother was a native of Virginia. At an early age he was sent to
school in England, where he finished his education. On January 2, 1776, he was
made Colonel of the Maryland Battalion, and on July 10, with nine
companies, he joined Washington in New York. His troops took an active part in
the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, and at White Plains. At White Plains
he was wounded, and for his gallantry on the occasion Congress appointed him a
Brigadier-General, October 23, 1776. He was present at the Battles of Brandywine
and Germantown. At the latter place his Maryland troops retrieved the day, and
captured part of the enemy's camp. During the winter of 1777-1778
he was stationed at Wilmington, Delaware. He won new laurels in the southern
campaign, and received the thanks of Congress. In September, 1780, he
was given the rank of Major-General, and remained in the army until
the close of the war. In 1785, he was elected to Congress, but in the
same year was chosen Governor of Maryland, and served in the latter
office until 1788. He then retired to his plantation called
"Mattawoman," on the Potomac, in Charles County, and resided there
during the remainder of his life. The registers of Durham
Parish show that he took an active part in the vestry meetings. In 1791 his
subscription to the Vestry was estimated on three thousand pounds of tobacco,
the largest crop in the parish. He died unmarried, February 14, 1792, and is
buried on his plantation; his estate passed to collateral heirs. His old
Colonial homestead, built of brick, still stands upon a high
promontory on the shore of the Potomac. On July 4, 1898, the
Sons of the American Revolution erected there a granite monument to
his memory. — Nat. Cyc. of Amer. Bio., IX., 292; Heitman; Md. Journal and
Balt. Advertiser, Feb. 21, 1792.
8 EBENEZER FINLEY, of Maryland, made
Captain of Maryland Artillery, July 4, 1777. This company formed
part of the First Continental Artillery, May 30, 1778. In June, 1780,
Captain Finley became Department Judge Advocate of the Southern
Department, and continued in that office until the close of the war.
Heitman.
9 HORATIO CLAGETT, or Claggett, son of Thomas
Clagett, of "Piscataway," St. George's County,
Maryland, served as Ensign of the Third Battalion Maryland Flying
Camp, from July to
December, 1776. He became
First Lieutenant of the
third Maryland regiment, December 10, 1776, and Captain, October 10,
1777. He was transferred to the Fifth Maryland, January 1, 1781, and to the
Third Maryland, January 2, 1783. He was retained in the Maryland Battalion,
April, 1783, and on the 30th of September was given the rank of Brevet-Major.
His service in the army continued until November 3, 1783. After the war he went
to London, England, married and died there. — Heitman; W. W. Bowie,
"Bowies and Their Kindred (Washington, D. C., 1899), 399.
SOURCE: Albert Cook
Myers, Editor, Sally Wister's Journal A True Narrative Being A
Quaker Maiden's Account Of Her Experiences With
Officers Of The Continental Army, 1777-1778, pp. 73-8
Philadelphia. Since the late unhappy affairs at Concord and Lexington, finding the spirit of the people to rise on every fresh alarm, (which has been almost hourly,) and their tempers to get more and more soured and malevolent against all moderate men, whom they see fit to reproach as enemies of their country by the name of tories, among whom I am unhappily (although unjustly) ranked; and unable longer to bear their undeserved reproaches and menaces hourly denounced against myself and others, I think it a duty I owe myself to withdraw for a while from the storm which to my foreboding mind is approaching. Having in vain endeavoured to persuade my wife to accompany me, her apprehensions of danger from an incensed soldiery, a people licentious and enthusiastically mad and broken loose from all the restraints of law or religion, being less terrible to her than a short passage on the ocean; and being moreover encouraged by her, I left my late peaceful home (in my sixtieth year) in search of personal security and those rights which by the laws of God I ought to have enjoyed undisturbed there, and embarked at Beverly on board the schooner Lively, Captain Johnson, bound hither, on Sunday the 23d ultimo, and have just arrived. Hoping to find an asylum amongst quakers and Dutchmen, who I presume from former experience have too great a regard for ease and property to sacrifice either at this time of doubtful disputation on the altar of an unknown goddess, or rather doubtful divinity.
* Merchants of Beverly.
† See Supplement.
SOURCE: George Atkinson Ward, Journal and Letters of the Late Samuel Curwen, Judge of Admiralty, etc., An American Refugee in England from 1775 to 1784, pp. 25-6
Spoke Capt. Waterman in a schooner from Nantucket, who brought me a letter from Nathan Goodale, stating that his family, Mr. Pynchon's, and Mr. Orne's, had arrived there, to which I replied.
TO NATHAN GOODALE, ESQ.
In the Delaware, May 16, 1775.
DEAR SIR:
You can scarce conceive my joy at hearing that my neighbours, suffering in the same cause as myself, and for whom I sincerely profess a friendship, were in a secure retreat. Continue there by all means, safe from the alarms and dangers you have fled from.
Philadelphia is wholly American, strong friends to congressional measures; at least, no man is hardy enough to express a doubt of the feasibility of their projects. Mr. Joseph Lee leads a recluse life there. The inhabitants are displeased that the New Englanders make it their city of refuge. The new established post (instead of the old eastern one which is stopped,) admits no letters to pass but those franked; the contents of which must be known to one of the committee to be entitled to that benefit.
Yours truly,
SAML. CURWEN.
SOURCE: George Atkinson Ward, Journal and Letters of the Late Samuel Curwen, Judge of Admiralty, etc., An American Refugee in England from 1775 to 1784, pp. 29
You can scarce conceive my joy at hearing that my
neighbours, suffering in the same cause as myself, and for whom I sincerely
profess a friendship, were in a secure retreat. Continue there by all means,
safe from the alarms and dangers you have fled from.
Philadelphia is wholly American, strong friends to
congressional measures; at least, no man is hardy enough to express a doubt of
the feasibility of their projects. Mr. Joseph Lee leads a recluse life there.
The inhabitants are displeased that the New Englanders make it their city of
refuge. The new established post (instead of the old eastern one which is
stopped,) admits no letters to pass but those franked; the contents of which
must be known to one of the committee to be entitled to that benefit.
SOURCE: George Atkinson Ward, Journal and Letters of the Late Samuel Curwen, Judge of Admiralty, etc., An American Refugee in England from 1775 to 1784, p. 29
1 A fancy name given to and used by Sarah
Burge (see note, ante) in correspondence during the Revolutionary
War.
2 The late James Cowles Fisher.
3 The Society of Friends.
SOURCE: “A
Loyalist's Account of Certain Occurrences in Philadelphia After Cornwallis's
Surrender at Yorktown. Extracted from the Diary of Miss Anna Rawle.” The
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Publisher, Pennsylvania Magazine of
History and Biography, Vol. 16, 1892 No. 1, p. 107
