Freida, This is fascinating. Thank you. Donna McCullough -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] <[email protected]> To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Date: Saturday, November 25, 2000 11:24 AM Subject: [JOBE] Battle of Brandywine >For those of you who do not subscribe to Old Chester Co PA, this came thru >the maillist today and since Enoch Job. Jr. grandson of Josuha and Margaet >McKay Job fought in this engagement, I thought those of us and others might >like to ready this, it is continued so when it next segment comes thru I will >post. >Freida > >~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ > >These recollections are by Phebe Mendanhall Thomas, who was born in 1770 and >died in 1875, at 104 years, 6 MOs and 12 days...pretty amazing in itself! > "My first recollections of the War were of the Battle of Brandywine. We >heard the guns all day and Mother would say whenever we heard a great volley >of noise, "Dear me, what are they doing?": But they let us know what they >had been doing in the evening. Father said it was a great battle near, he >could only judge where, by the directions of the sound. > In the evening a great company of American soldiers came. Father told >us to shut up the front of the house and come back to the kitchen. They >came flocking into the yard, and sat down on the cider press, trough and >benches, and every place thy could find. They seemed so tired. Father said >"bring bread and cheese and cut for them." They were so hungry. > Margaret. Stephen's wife, came running in with her 2 children. Stephen >was away off at the other end of the place and knew nothing of it. As it >happened both houses, ours and Stephen's, had baked that day, and we cut up >all the bread and cheese we had. I know, I got no supper and they had to >bake brean on the iron. > Then after a bit a Captain came on his horse. He was wounded and had >his servant and a Doctor. He wanted to stay all night. Father didn't want >him to stay, for he told him he expected the English would be along in the >morning, and would tear us all to pieces, but they didn't mind that. They >took oll hie horse, brought him in and they staid. The girls brought hima >bed, and he laid there in the common house and the Doctor staid with him. >the servant slept in the barn. They all got their suppers too. > Next morning the wounded man was too bad to get on his horse. They got >the horse there, and the girls helped to life him, but he coudn't get on. >Father didn't want him there when the English came. As the wounded man was >laying there, Adam came running in and said "The Red-Coats are coming? The >Red-Coats are coming?" The poor sick man raised up and called for mercy. >The Doctor hid under the porch, but is was only one of the neighbors that >had a reddish-brown coat. > Mother and Father sat up all the night and about daybreak Father went >out to the barn to see if the servant was still there. He found him snoring >away. He touched him with his foot and said "What, out here still?" The >man jumped up and rubbed his eyes, and then put off for the Black Horse, >where the soldiers had gone the night before )note; the Black Horse was a >tavern located at Edgmong Great Road from Chester). > Finding that the Captain couldn't ride (he had a bullet in his thigh), >Father geared up a great black horse we had, a noble fellow, to the >carriage, and they took him to the Black Horse. Oh! How clad I was to see >father come home. He had just put the horse away, when the English came, >sure enough, but they didn't come to the house. > We were so afraid while Father was away, but he wasn't gone long. I >remember when I say him coming I couldn't think what made the gears all >white, but it was the foam. It was 10 miles to the Black Horse, and back >and he driven very fast. Well, as I said, he just got the horse put away, >when we saw the Red-Coats coming. One big officer came to ask if there was >any way of avoiding bit hill. They had the poorest little horses to pull >their big guns, they couldn't pull them up the big hill by the barn. Father >went to show them that they shouldn't go on the grain. He went out there >without his had, and he told the officer he wanted to go to the house to get >his had, and besides he'd left no one at the house, but women and children, >and that he'd heard their men sometimes behaved very badly. The officer >turned to a man behind him and said "Go guard the gentleman's house." The >man came galloping up, and that frightened us, for we thought they were all >coming, and Father was away. However,he galloped up to the gate, and there >he stopped. > While he was there,a woman came with a can, and tried to get in at the >gate. He refused to let her come in, but she was a right soldier, and would >push in. so he struck her a right blow with his sword. Mother ran out and >said "don't hurt her, maybe she wants something." sure enough she wanted >milk, so Lizzie took some out and filled her can. We couldn't tell what the >man could mean sitting there on his horse, saying nothing. However, after a >bit Father came, and then he rode away. > We heard the guns the day of the battle of Germantown. Father was sure >there must be a battle somewhere and he thought maybe after night he could >see the light, so he went up to the garret window, our house was very high, >but he couldn't see anything. Mother went with him, and then I didn't want >to be left behind, so I followed. Oh? I was afraid. I was only 7 years old >then. > The Americans took 2 of Stephen's horses, to do some hauling at Chester, >and wanted him to go along to drive them, but he wouldn't go. I remember >Mother and B'tha would often say "I wonder how Godfrey's getting along?" He >was gone a good many days, it might be 2 weeks, when I saw him away at the >meadow, across the mill, I cried out, "There comes Godfrey!" They said "No, >it can't be him, because he hasn't got the horses." I knew him. So they >all ran out into the yard to see him, and when he came he was so sad. He >had done the hauling for the Americans, and was coming home when the English >met a mile or so from home, down by the church, and took the horses from >him. Oh? How he did swear, and called them all the bad names...He could do >that, for he was a big rough fellow. After the War when they were settling >up, the English offered to pay Stephen for them, but he wouldn't take the >money, so it went into the Treasury to school poor Children. > They took Father's find horse for a fine. They had heavy fines laid on >everybody to support the War. Friends wouldn't pay these fines, so they >took what they wanted, and they took the finest horse. They wouldn't take >the old mare. > I remember B'tha getting on the black horse to ride over to Thomas >Speakman's and as she was most to the Cross Roads she saw some soldiers >coming. She didn't know whether they were American or English, but she >turned in a great hurry and came home full tilt. > I remember I was out on the horse block, and saw her coming. I told >Mother. "There comes B'tha" "Why, no? she said, "She's not coming back >already. But she ran out, ann sure enough there she was. Mother said "Why >Bthy, what's thee doing back so soon?" and she said "I met some soldiers >coming and I was afraid they'd take my horse." So, she'd missed her visit. > In the time of the War and afterward the Collectors use to come to get >the tax. Friends wouldn't pay, so they took cows, and anything they >pleased. I remember 2 came there one day. Father was away. Mother and the >girls were away behind the house washing, and there was no one there but me. >they took down the big candlestick first. They would always take that down, >but never carried it away with them. Then they went to the closet under the >steps. Father had told Mother and us, if the Collectors came while he was >away, not to let them take anything that was John Gest's; he was a boy that >Father was Guardian for, and he had the best of his goods at out house. >Well, they went to the closet. I was sitting in the big arm chair. John >Gess' pewter was away back in the closet. I called to them "Don't take John >Gess' pewter!" They shut the door in a hurry and went to the cupboard with >the glass doors where the china, silver spoons and glass were kept, and took >our big silver spoons. I remember one of them putting a spoon to his lips >and saying, "You could get a good mouthful with this." > They would take beds, looking-glasses, bureaus and anything at all. I >remember one night, Adam and B'thy and I were coming home from school, and >we met 2 men, one carrying a big looking glass under his arm. Adam called >out to them, "That's our big looking-glass!" Billy said, "Hush, hush!" >"No, I won't hush. It is our big looking glass." The men laughted. >However, we ran home, and there sure enough was out big looking glass gone. > ****to be continued********* > > > >