WATSON'S ANNALS of PHILADELPHIA Vol 2 Published in 1857 Soon after the battle, British officers came to the houses, and asked for young men to come out and bury. While they were so burying, a British soldier came and said, " Don't bury them with their faces up, and thus cast dirt in their faces, for they also `are mothers' sons'. " Very few girls were known to have formed any attachments for the enemy - a Miss Servor, and another, were the only two known to have gone away. In going into Chew's house, they noticed that the rooms were all much blackened by the smoke of their firings -- -- saw only one man who had been wounded in the house, and he was dying. One Isaac Wood, at the present John Andrews' place, on Lime Kiln road, was killed at this cellar door, while peeping out at the battle, which was near him, along side of Dr. Betton's woods. Very few accidents occurred to cattle during the fight. A cow, which belonged to John Smith's father, and which was in the field between the combatants, was bought after the fight for ten joes ( 80 dollars) ; at that time her beef would bring 50 cents a pound. They had hard fare then, and all lived on the coarsest and cheapest kind of food. A cow, killed by a bullet in Peters' stable, was cut up, and eaten willingly. The house now Duval's, (then Christopher Huber's, and once Samuel Shoemaker's, a mayor of Philadelphia,) had the floor at one time covered with army tailors, making up clothing. The shoe-makers and smiths would go to shops in squads, and use the tools for their work, in which the owners would join them, for the sake of keeping an eye on the preservation of their tools and materials. At and about the spring house of the same Duval's pace, (at the rear of his garden lot), the premises being then in the tenure of Ch. Huber, the Virginia troops became engaged. On that occasion, a soldier was shot and killed along side of WM. DOLBY, who, from that circumstance, became averse to war ; soon after left his station in the ranks, found a retreat at Thomas Livezey's, (a miller and Friend), then a very secluded place amid the wilds of the Wissahiccon. There he became fully convinced of Friends' principles, joined the society, and was afterwards a very acceptable and approved public Friend. He afterwards settled in Delaware state --often visited the yearly meetings in Philadelphia, --and at the end of forty years after the above mentioned battle, revisited the spot of his outward and inward conflict, and told the facts to Abraham Keyser, my informant, now 80 years of age. I once had a similar fact of convincement from my old friend John Baylie, who was engaged as a non-commissioned officer, a volunteer, under Wayne, at Trois rivers ; and while FEARLESSLY entering into battle, all at once, one of the men in the ranks near him, (a militia man), beginning audibly to pray for the salvation of those who might fall, he had such a conviction of HIS unpreparedness for death and eternity, that he felt himself to tremble from head to foot under the divine power---he also ejaculated prayers--resolved instantly TO KILL NO MAN--fired above his mark---became tranquil and self-possessed---went fearlessly into all danger,--and as soon as he got home, joined the Friends of Bucks county, and relinquished his pay. There was much woods on the north-east side of Beggarstown, up too Liebert's boat yard ; and along these woods were many dead and wounded. John Smith saw an American trooper driving dashingly along the poor house lane, towards Germantown, then turned off the road and hid himself and horse in a cider mill, on present John Wistar's place. Soon there came a troop in pursuit, and missed him. When Smith first left his father's house, at the befinning of the battle, to seek a refuge, he saw walking on the street two wounded British soldiers, bloody, and going to the rear. He ran to Nicetown before stopping, and there met the British coming out from the city, in a kind of half running march. In Jacob S. Wunder's lot, he saw two of our men wounded, who had lain there all night, and he took them cider to drink. They were shot in the limbs, so that they could not walk, or help themselves. The British army were covered with dust, when they first passed through Germantown ; they were at other times kept very clean. Their horses were heavy, clumsy and large. Horsemen of both armies would occasionally pass rattling through the streets of Germantown by night, and in the morning it was clearly designated of which side the horsemen were, by the English horse being so very much larger in the hoof. The Hessian cavalry were gay ponies, much decorated with leather trappings. Women coming from Philadelphia, when met by our scouts, were very rudely searched for forbidden things about their persons, and often shamefully plundered of real necessaries. A large body of Hessians were hutted in Ashmead's field, out the School lane, near the woods ; their huts were constructed of the rails from fences, set up at an angle of 45 degrees, resting on a crossbeam centre ; close and warm. Those for the officers had wicker doors, with a glass light, [window-light?] , and interwoven with plaited straw ; they had also chimneys made of grass sod. They no doubt had prepared so to pass the winter, but the battle broke up their plans. One of the Hessians afterwards became Washington's coachman. Col. Pickering, in speaking of his recollections of the battle of Germantown, says, Washington's army started the evening preceding the battle, and marched all night. In the march, Gen. Washington followed Sullivan's column, and when the battle began, said to Col. Pickering, "Go ahead, and say that I am afraid he is throwing away his ammunition, and to try to reserve himself for a more general action." The colonel then passed Chew's house without seeing any demonstrations of fight there ; and he thinks the unseen troops therein were then barricading the premises. He overtook Gen. Sullivan three or four hundred yards beyond that house, and when returning, saw for the first time, that they were firing from that house across his road. He soon rejoined Gen. Washington, with his officers, at Billmeyer's house. A flag was sent forthwith to the house to summon their surrender, which Lieut. Smith, of Virginia, volunteered to carry, and got shot as he was advancing, and afterwards died fom the wound. Sullivan's division, therefore, was NEVER DELAYED by the force in the house. Gen. Green's column on the left did not get into action till three quarters of an hour later than those on the right, because of the greater circuit which they had to make ; whereas, those on the main street, went more direcly to the point of atack. In Col. Pickering's opinion, Judge Johnson's "Life of Greene" has given erroneous statements respecting Gen. Washington's hesitance to pass Chew's house ; and he distinctly says, that only Gen. Knox could have been present to obtrude any advice in that matter ; also, the rest of the general officers were in their places, with their commands. The first of the retreating began for WANT OF MORE AMMUNITION, they having exhausted it, as the commander-in-chief had before apprehended. The boys of Germantown made play-work of the war, making themselves three forts (upper, middle, and lower) , along the town. They had regular embankments, and fought with stones, under a show of wooden guns. On one occasion, an American officer, in passing, called out, "Who commands there?" and they called out his own name, "Proctor !" An aged gentleman, who has been a contributor of many of the facts of Germantown, and to whom I have submitted the perusal of the preceding pages, has commended them for their accuracy, and has furnished some additional illustrations, which I have added, viz. : Christopher Ludwick, the baker-general, usually bore, and received the appellation of GENERAL. He once owned the plantation, now belonging to John Haines. He lived many years in a very independent manner, in the house next Mrs. Sarah Johnson. He was of a very social cast, talking freely along the street with all he met, and in so loud and strong a voice, as every where to announce his vicinity; --so much so, that it was usual in families, in doors, to say, "There goes the general !" The frankness which characterized him, encouraged the woman, who became his second wife, to say to him, in meeting him in the street, that as she felt concerned for his loneliness as a widower, she would offer herself to him for a companion, in case he thought it might conduce to their mutual happiness. He took it, as he said, into a short consideration, and they became man and wufe ; she being a good wife, and both of them a happy couple, in the opinion of all ! He had but one eye. My informant has seen many of the brotherhood of Ephrata, passing through Germantown, following in Indian file, all dressed alike, AND ALL THEIR CLOTHES, FROM HEAD TO FOOT, WAS WITHOUT COLOUR ! To be continued