Damages Sustained: British Looting in Chadds Ford after the Battle of Brandywine

By Karen A. Smith

"…..we had a full opportunity of beholding the destruction and wanton waste committed on the property of the peaceable inhabitants of the neighborhood, and on the ground of the encampment."  – Joseph Townsend

As evening shadows lengthened over the battleground in Chadds Ford that hot September day in 1777, area residents must have breathed a little easier, knowing that the fierce battle fought that day would soon be over, and certain that the invading British and American armies would march away, leaving the Brandywine Valley in peace. How distressed they must have been when the British remained in the area for five more days! For, after the American army retreated twelve miles to Chester, the British force did not pursue, but camped on the battleground, resting, tending the injured, burying the dead, and looting nearby homes and properties.

They couldn’t have chosen a better place to linger. Birmingham Township was a prosperous area, solidly middle-class and largely agricultural with healthy dairy and grain exports. Its roughly 650 residents were mostly peaceable Quakers, whose belief that war was a sin against God prohibited them from armed rebellion. Friends (Quakers) who refused to pay war taxes risked confiscation of personal property by tax collectors, as young Phebe Thomas of Westtown Township experienced first-hand:

Not only Quakers suffered economically before the battle; starting as early as 1774, all Chester Countians were expected to supply goods for the war effort. Quotas included 600 firelocks, 80 bushels of salt, 4,000 bushels of horse feed, and 500 blankets. Lead from clock weights and other equipment was needed as well. In most cases, citizens were reimbursed for these items: salt returned 15 shillings per bushel; lead was purchased at 6 pence per pound; and blankets were assessed and paid for at "the full value."

When word spread in early September that two armies were approaching the Brandywine Valley, residents scurried to protect their assets. American General George Washington had issued orders to prevent looting, but there was no such guarantee from the ill-provisioned British Commander, Sir William Howe. Farmers in Chadds Ford hid away everything that could be concealed, one family hiding cured meat in a recess of the northeastern wall of the house. One man took his gold and silver and placed it in a milk pot which he buried in one corner of the house.

With battle imminent, some residents fled to safer haven with relatives or friends, while others, like 67-year-old Elizabeth Chads, remained to protect their properties. Elizabeth stayed put on her hill, in the direct line of fire from General Knyphausen’s division, even after a cannonball smashed into her springhouse. She never filed a damage claim, and it is unknown what her losses where, but she did retain possession of some of her valuables, hiding "…Her Silver Spoons Daily in her Packet [pocket] until the Danger was over."

After the Continentals retreated, the British stayed and replenished their supplies, depleted during the month-long sail from New Jersey to Elk Ferry, Maryland. Dr. William Darlington, of Birmingham township, described their method: "...the officers sent their servants round among the farmers of the vicinity to collect poultry and other provender for their own tables. These marauders regarded as lawful plunder everything they could lay their hands upon and deemed worth carrying away."

Indeed, the looting ranged in nature from the appropriation of practical items needed to supply an army such as foodstuffs and livestock, blankets and clothing, cooking equipment and medical supplies to the vicious destruction of personal property like clocks, spice boxes, and looking glasses. Clothing and bedding were torn up in strips to be used as bandages, pages ripped from books for use in making cartridges, and pewter and lead melted down into ammunition. How do we know what was taken? In 1782, the Pennsylvania legislature passed an act to "procure an estimate of the damages sustained by the inhabitants of Pennsylvania from the troops and adherents of the King of Great Britain during the present war." Chester County filed claims worth £41,372 pounds or $1.6 million today; the townships that make up the Brandywine Battlefield National Historic Landmark filed claims totaling £8,602 pounds or $333,227 today; and Birmingham Township filed claims worth £5,844 pounds or $226,117 today. Of the 36 Chester County townships, Birmingham was one of the hardest hit.

Food ranked high on the list of items taken. Butter, smoked beef, beans, bacon, cabbage, onions, sugar, and "a quantity of other Garden Stuff" were listed. 4,627 pounds (2.3 tons) of cheese were taken, enough for Howe’s 18,000 men to receive ¼ pound each . The cheese was valued at £153 pounds or $5,919 today. Ripening apples were stripped from trees. Joseph Dilworth claimed "6 Bushels of Dryed Apples" damaged, and Gideon Gilpin put in for "Fruit Destroyed" for £70 pounds. Grain crops like oats, rye, barley, and particularly wheat, were taken in great quantities. Livestock was appropriated and slaughtered to feed hungry soldiers. 177 cattle were claimed lost in the landmark area, with 75% of those from Birmingham. The 133 Birmingham cattle lost comprised 24% of all Chester County cattle losses and probably close to 81% of total cattle population in Birmingham Township. Similar loss percentages can be seen with pigs and sheep. Numerous fowl were reported lost as well.

Alcoholic beverages were carried off and consumed by the British with glee. William Darlington provides us with a description of such: "A large quantity of liquors was stored in the cellar of Emmor Jefferis, at Jefferis’ Ford, on the very route by which Sir William Howe and Lord Cornwallis passed with the main division of the army. The British soldiers ransacked the house, rolled the casks of liquor out of the cellar, knocked in the heads of the vessels, and drank of the contents until a great number of them became intoxicated." Dilworthtown tavernkeeper Charles Dilworth claimed £820 pounds ($31,755 today) worth of damages. Among other items, he claimed three barrels of whiskey, 10 gallons of rum, and 15 gallons of peach brandy. Coffee, tea, and cider were also claimed.

Horses were in great demand by the British, having lost 400 during the arduous sail south. Those that survived were described as "sick and stiff." The intrepid Joseph Townsend reports seeing General Howe "mounted on a large English horse much reduced in flesh, I suppose from their being confined on board the fleet…" Phebe Thomas called the British horses "...the poorest little rats." The British replenished some of their stock during the stay in Chadds Ford, taking 181 horses from the townships that make up today’s landmark area, more than half the amount taken in all of Chester County. Birmingham lost 37 horses, probably close to 30% of their total horse population. No doubt the loss would have been worse had not many of the horses been hidden or ridden away by owners fleeing the battleground. Horses of riding age were most in demand, but draft animals were also needed to pull supply wagons and artillery. Plundered horse equipment included harnesses, halters, and carts, along with 20 saddles and 13 bridles. Feed for the newly acquired animals and for the weakened British mounts was needed desperately. Farmers were relieved of 4,287 bushels of oats and 550 tons of hay throughout Chester County.

The encamped soldiers needed wood for cooking fires. They didn’t have far to look—much of the Chadds Ford area was fenced. Close to 10,000 rails from post-and-rail and worm fences were dismantled and used for tinder in Birmingham Township alone. Charles Dilworth claimed damages to 89 panels of "Worm fence" equalling £4 pounds, 9 shillings. Despite this plentitude of wood, British soldiers seemed to delight in ransacking homes and destroying furniture and personal items. Many residents fell victim to this punitive measure. William Harvey claimed one "Large Spice Box Broke to pieces" at a cost of £2 pounds, 10 shillings. Charles Dilworth filed a claim for one "Large Walnut Table damaged, the feet being cut off" and one "Looking Glass broke to pieces." Local Quaker youth Joseph Townsend reported that it was not uncommon to see household furniture and bedding "wantonly wasted and burned" and "to see heaps of feathers lying about the farms, the ticks having been stripped off and made use of, and the remains of small pieces of valuable furniture lying about their fireplaces, in the fields, unconsumed, when there was no want of timber and fence-rails, which might have been used for their cooking, etc.; but being in an enemy’s country, inhabited by rebels, there was no restraint on the soldiery or rabble which accompanied them."

After the British army moved eastward to Philadelphia on September 16th, Chadds Ford was indeed left in peace, but at the cost of untold destruction. Absent residents returned to survey the damage done to their properties; others helped rebury the dead. Damage was extensive. Household stores were depleted, fields of crops denuded or burned, harvested grains wiped out, livestock appropriated, orchards stripped of fruit, pastureland munched to the root by confiscated British horses, and personal items destroyed or taken. The winter of 1777-78 was a difficult one for the Brandywine Valley, as were the following few years. Farmers, although the ripest targets, were, however, better able to survive the disruption in the economy because they continued to produce goods for home consumption.

The 47 claims filed in the area where the battle was fought comprised less than 9% of households. This low rate is indicative not of a household’s lucky escape from marauding British troops, but rather of the religious beliefs of its occupants. Chadds Ford’s large Quaker population viewed filing a claim of losses to receive monetary compensation as profiting from war; most did not file. Scholars estimate that the real cost of damages was somewhere near twice that of the claims actually filed.

There is little evidence that filers of damage claims were ever reimbursed for their losses. Only five of the 47 claimants in the landmark area had received compensation at the time of the claim, for a total reimbursement of £215 pounds, just 2.5% of all claims. All in all, Chadds Ford residents probably considered themselves fortunate to have survived the battle unscathed; no civilians were killed during the week-long occupation by British and American soldiers. Chadds Ford continued as a sleepy, agricultural village, never again enduring the tremendous crush of soldiers, warfare, and destruction as it did in 1777.

Futhey, J. Smith and Gilbert Cope. History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with Genealogy and Biographical Sketches. Philadelphia, PA: Louis H. Everts, 1881.

Lemon, James T. The Best Poor Man’s Country: A Geographical Study of Early Southeastern Pennsylvania. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1972.

Pleasants, Henry. A Register of Damages Sustained by the Inhabitants of Chester County By the Troops and Adherents of the King of Great Brittain During the American Revolution. Unpublished transcript, Chester County Historical Society.

Smith, Samuel S. The Battle of Brandywine. Monmouth Beach, New Jersey: Philip Freneau Press, 1976.