Hi Group: Those of you who were interested in the Germantown series may remember the story of the Battle of Germantown. It was written as though the battle was all over and done with in one day's time. The reality , according to Watson's "Germantown" chapter, is that the residents suffered a great deal on a continuing basis. This is a rather lengthy segment and may require more than one posting. Words in capitals are in italics in the book. Evelyn WATSON'S ANNALS OF PHILADELPHIA VOL. 2 Page 47 Published1857 There is, I presume, a great mass of citizens, who having never been in battle, feel a desire to have a close insight into the incidents which must there occur ;- this, as a means to remove some of the vagueness of their imaginings and conjectures. Such feelings I have had myself ; and which have been in part relieved, by such enquiries as I have occasionally made among the few remaining individuals who had witnessed the doings in the battle, and at the British encampment, &c., in Germantown, to wit : The most of the conflict was on the north-eastern side of Germantown. That part of our troops which encountered the Hessians and British, near the junction of the Wissahiccon with the Schuylkill, had de-filed for that purpose, after they arrived at Chestnut hill, going thence, as led by two guides, of whom Geo. Danenhower, lately alive, was one. When the battle bean, the fathers of families were quickly busied in disposing of their children and women in cellars. In the present C.M.Stoke's house, then belonging to Squire Feree, there were collected two dozen of weeping and terrified women. George Knorr and other boys ran towards Philadelphia, as far as Nicetown, where they met the Hessians coming out, and then stopped. One cannon ball struck a tree at Haines' brewery, as they passed, and then went before them down the street. Boys were very curious and venturous ; and several of them plucked up courage and got to the tops of houses, and even into the streets to see what could be seen. Such as some of them saw, I shall relate : - Such as the battalion of TALL Virginians, under Col. Matthews, brought in prisoners from Kelley's place, and lodged in the church at the maket house. The faces of the prisoners and their guards were well blackened about their mouths with gunpowder, in biting off their cartridges. These Virginians had just before captured a party of British in the fog, and set up a hurrah, which brought a greater force upon them, and caused their own capture. The roar and rattling of discharges of musketry and cannon, was incessant ; and the whistling of balls, were occasionally heard. Combatants could be seen, from the house top, occasionally in conflict, then obscured by smoke, and then again exposed to view. The battle, though begun at daylight, was continued till after 10 o'clock. The retreat, when it began, a little before 11, must have been skilful as to general arrangement and orders, for it went off WITH ENTIRE SILENCE. It seemed like a conflict and a great outbreak, suddenly hushed. The battle was but little witnessed IN THE TOWN, after the first onset, and but few of the military were seen along the main street. It was chiefly on the north-eastern side, on the tillage ground ; and the fences were mostly down. A great deal of fighting must have occurred in Joseph Magarge's field, near Branchtown, (probably with Stephen's division,) ascertained from the great number of leaden bullets found in his ten acre field, for years afterwards. Stephens himself had been set aside some time before, by his own oficers, as too much inebriated to command. This was told to me by one of his captains. The present Dr. George de Benneville, of Branchtown, now aged 83 years, was a lad of sixteen, at the time of the battle of Germantown, and saw much of the fight, and of the preceding and succeeding operations of the two armies. They had the Highlanders and British cavalry quartered in his neighbourhood. They were always cheerful, and always seemed to go gaily and confidently into expected fights. On such occasions, the kilted Scots went off in full trot, keeping up with the trot of the cavalry. The soldiers made free to take and kill the cows of the family, and their neighbours ; but the officers were gentlemanly in their deportment, and seemed to try to put them in a way to get some recompense. Several of the british officers were quartered in Thomas Nedrow's house - the same now Butler's house, opposite to the residence of the present Pierce Butler. When the battle came on, the British made a barricade across the York road, at the place of those two houses. One militia, in the time of the battle, made no stand of resistance in the neighbourhood of Branchtown, but seemed quickly to make their retreat; and for this non-defence, as many of them were known in the neighbourhood, they did not fail, afterwards. to receive the jibes and jeers of the people. They accused them of throwing away their cartridges, as a feint of having exhausted them in fight ! Dr. de Benneville saw the British army come down the York road, on their return and defeat, after they had their affair at Edge hill, where Gen. Morgan, with his riflemen, had so ably discomfited them. The British still looked well, and as if able to make a bold stand, if pressed to do it. The doctor has described to me, with lively vivacity, his vivid recollections of those days; and says they were daily of the most stirring interest to him, and others of his neighbourhood. They kept them daily excited, and interested in every thing doing around them; and almost every day brought something new to pass, which in some way or other, might engage the feelings, or the wonder, of himself, and his youthful companions. Such recollections, to their possessors, a least, are even now FELT to be worth a whole age of lesser years ! Mr. John Ashmead, still alive, and then an intelligent lad of twelve years of age, - as soon as the battle ceased, started from the market house, with a young companion, to "range o'er the tented field to note the dead". He saw several lots of dead, in parcels of sixes and sevens ; none of the wounded remaining. They visited Chew's house - there they saw before the house about thirty dead, whom citizens were already beginning to bury, north-west of the house. They went into the house and all over it - saw blood in every room - noticed where a six pounder, which had come in at the front window, had gone through four partitions, and then out at the back of the house. Observed that some of the British therein, had used the back windows on the roof to get out, and under the shelter of that roof, to fire upon assailants approaching the front. They saw a dead American soldier, lying on his still smoking fire brand, who had evidently gotten there under the shelter of a board fence, joining the house to the kitchen out-house, and had been shot, (vainly seeking "the bubble reputation,") as he was about setting fire to the same, by a soldier from the cellar window. Another fine young warrior, volunteering to effect the same purpose, with a bundle of straw at a window, at the north-west corner, was also shot down on the spot. Persons who saw our retreating men at Chestnut Hill, say they passed there with some show of order and control. It is, however, surprising how very few seem to have seen the whole scene, with sufficient intelligence to afford a picture to any inquirer now. One wants to know how they looked and did, how fared the wounded, and how they got on, &c.,&c. Some of those in the retreat passed by the way of Oxford, thus showing a wide dispersion. Sundry of our wounded were deemed far enough removed when taken into the Episcopalian church, as their hospital, at Flour town. The British, shortly after the battle, concentred in Philadelphia and vicinity. Directly after they left Germantown, a troop of American horsemen came through the town upon their rear, so closely, that a British surgeon, who had just left dressing the wounds of three American officers, prisoners in the Widow Hess' house, was over-taken on foot in the street. When they were about to arrest him, W. Fryhoffer, who saw it, and knew the facts in the case, proclaimed his useful services, and he was told to walk to the city at his ease. In the mean time, the three officers were taken as prizes, and thus unexpectedly liberated. The same troop, advancing a little further, encountered a Quaker looking man in a chaise, who, in trepidation, made a short turn at Bowman's lane and upset, and thus exposed a large basket full of plate. He and his treasure were captured and ordered off to head-quarters. One of the boys of that day has told me how he used to go to mill, to bring flour to an individual in Germantown, who used to deliver it out TO WOMEN coming from Philadelphia*, at high prices, and carrying it in small parcels concealed about their persons. These were probably petty dealers for the wants of the town, and thus made their gain. The same returned with salt, &c. *[ It was carried to Philadelphia, and brought $8 per cwt. I knew a man to carry 1/2 cwt., and boys that carried 1/4 cwt., but they had to take a by-road for fear of losing it.] British officers were generally quartered in houses in the town, and demeaned themselves very civilly to the families therein. The officers, very many of them, were young; only the superior grades were aged. The soldiers were well disciplined, and did not commit any severe aggressions. The 33rd one night stole a neighbor's cow, killed her, and covered her with straw, behind the late Wm. Keyser's bark house; a sham search was made next morning, but it was soon hushed, and the cow cut up. They were said to be the clearings of the jails. The 33rd were noted thieves, but they had to do it quietly. Two of the inhabitants of the town, Andrew Heath and young Sowers, became guides to the British, and wore their green uniform when so acting, intending, probably, to pass unnoticed ; but they did not, and had to leave the place till the peace. At the same time, the brother of Sowers was an active whig. The honest father was abused as a tory, although he had actually given many blankets to the town militia. Sundry of the whig persons, engaged with the army, used to make, occasionally, hazardous excursions to visit their families stealthily, by night, &c. On one occasion, Mr. Denny, who was a militia lieutenant, came to his father's near the market house, and when going away on horseback, at midnight, he chanced, as he was intending to turn into the church lane, to encounter the advance of a secret silent detachment going against LaFayette, at Barren hill. As he whipped up to turn the corner, they let fly a platoon, a ball from which, passed through his thigh, scarcely making him sensible of a wound, for he actually got over to the Branchtown tavern before he stopped. Such an alarm, at midnight, soon startled the whole town, and rapidly brought up the whole force of the expedition, at the same time breaking the intended secrecy. Jacob Keyser, now an aged citizen of about 80years of age, was then a lad ; he, with his father's family, lived where is now the house of the Rev.Mr. Rodney. Its high position above the street enabled them, by placing an apple under the cellar door, to peep abroad and see the battle in the opposite field, distinctly. After the battle, he went abroad ; and saw before the door of Jacob Peters' house, there lay a fine large American officer dead, on the pavement. In a little while, when he again passed there, he was nearly stripped, and while he beheld him, a man forced off his shirt as his own lawful prey ! His body was interred in the north-east corner of the burying ground opposite. His brother, Abraham Keyser, saw several officer looking persons, much divested of their clothing, laying dead along the inside of Chew's front wall-fence. It was understood that these inhumanities were inflicted by the followers of the camp - sometimes by soldiers' wives. These two brothers saw seventeen bodies put into one pit, near Chew's house, under a cherry tree. There was a row of cherry trees from the gate up to the north side of the house, and behind these trees men approached towards the house, as their shelter ; some were dead, or wounded, at the foot of those trees. A fine large soldier, from Reading lay dead at the gate ; also, a lad, a son of Col. Chamberlane, of New Jersey. To be continued....