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10/15/2026

𝐀𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐳𝐞𝐣 𝐓𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐮𝐬𝐳 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚 𝐊𝐨𝐬́𝐜𝐢𝐮𝐬𝐳𝐤𝐨 (𝐅𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝟒𝐭𝐡 𝟏𝟕𝟒𝟔 - 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟓𝐭𝐡, 𝟏𝟖𝟏𝟕, 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫, 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐧, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐚 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬, 𝐋𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐚, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐮𝐬.

On learning of the American Revolution, Kościuszko, a man of revolutionary aspirations, sympathetic to the American cause and an advocate of human rights, sailed for the Americas in June 1776 along with other foreign officers, likely with the help of a French supporter of the American revolutionaries, Pierre Beaumarchais. After finally arriving in Philadelphia (after a Caribbean shipwreck) he sought out Benjamin Franklin at his print shop; offering to take engineering subject exams (in lieu of any letters of recommendation), he received a high mark on a geometry exam and Franklin's recommendation. On 30 August 1776, Kościuszko submitted an application to the Second Continental Congress at the Pennsylvania State House, and was assigned to the Continental Army the next day.

Kościuszko was born in February 1746, in a manor house on the Mereczowszczyzna estate in Brest Litovsk Voivodeship, then Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, now the Ivatsevichy District of Belarus. At age 20, he graduated from the Corps of Cadets in Warsaw, Poland. After the start of the War of the Bar Confederation in 1768, Kościuszko moved to France in 1769 to study. He returned to the Commonwealth in 1774, two years after the First Partition, and was a tutor in Józef Sylwester Sosnowski's household. In 1776, Kościuszko moved to North America, where he took part in the American Revolutionary War as a colonel in the Continental Army. An accomplished military architect, he designed and oversaw the construction of state-of-the-art fortifications, including those at West Point, New York. In 1783, in recognition of his services, the Continental Congress promoted him to brigadier general.

Having not been paid in his seven years of service, in late May 1783, Kościuszko decided to collect the salary owed to him. That year, he was asked by Congress to supervise the fireworks during the 4 July celebrations at Princeton, New Jersey. On 13 October 1783, Congress promoted him to brigadier general, but he still had not received his back pay. Many other officers and soldiers were in the same situation. While waiting for his pay, unable to finance a voyage back to Europe, Kościuszko, like several others, lived on money borrowed from the Polish–Jewish banker Haym Solomon. Eventually, he received a certificate for 12,280 dollars, at 6%, to be paid on 1 January 1784 (equivalent to ~$323,000, paid as installments ~$19,400 a month in 2022), and the right to 500 acres (202.34 ha; 0.78 sq mi) of land, but only if he chose to settle in the United States.

For the winter of 1783–84, his former commanding officer, General Greene, invited Kościuszko to stay at his mansion. He was inducted into the Society of the Cincinnati and into the American Philosophical Society in 1785. During the Revolution, Kościuszko carried an old Spanish sword at his side, which was inscribed with the words Do not draw me without reason; do not sheathe me without honour.

Meanwhile, Kościuszko became more closely involved with political reformers such as Hugo Kołłątaj, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz and others. Kościuszko argued that the peasants and Jews should receive full citizenship status, as this would motivate them to help defend Poland in the event of war. The political reformers centered in the Patriotic Party scored a significant victory with adopting the Constitution of 3 May 1791. Kościuszko saw the Constitution as a step in the right direction, but was disappointed that it retained the monarchy and did little to improve the situation of the most underprivileged, the peasants and the Jews. The Commonwealth's neighbors saw the Constitution's reforms as a threat to their influence over Polish internal affairs. A year after the Constitution's adoption, on 14 May 1792, reactionary magnates formed the Targowica Confederation, which asked Russia's Tsaritsa Catherine II for help in overthrowing the Constitution. Four days later, on 18 May 1792, a 100,000-man Russian army crossed the Polish border, headed for Warsaw, beginning the Polish–Russian War of 1792.
After the battles, King Stanisław August Poniatowski promoted Kościuszko to lieutenant-general and also offered him the Order of the White Eagle, but Kościuszko, a convinced republican would not accept a royal honor. News of Kościuszko's victory spread over Europe, and on 26 August he received the honorary citizenship of France from the Legislative Assembly of revolutionary France. While Kościuszko considered the war's outcome to still be unsettled, the King requested a ceasefire. On 24 July 1792, before Kościuszko had received his promotion to lieutenant-general, the King shocked the army by announcing his accession to the Targowica Confederation and ordering the Polish–Lithuanian troops to cease hostilities against the Russians. Kościuszko considered abducting the King as the Bar Confederates had done two decades earlier, in 1771, but was dissuaded by Prince Józef Poniatowski. On 30 August, Kościuszko resigned from his army position and briefly returned to Warsaw, where he received his promotion and pay, but refused the King's request to remain in the Army. Around that time, he also fell ill with jaundice.

The King's capitulation was a hard blow for Kościuszko, who had not lost a single battle in the campaign. By mid-September 1792, he was resigned to leaving the country, and in early October, he departed from Warsaw. First, he went east, to the Czartoryski family manor at Sieniawa, which gathered various malcontents. In mid-November, he spent two weeks in Lwów, where he was welcomed by the populace.

On 2 April 1817, Kościuszko emancipated the peasants in his remaining lands in Poland, but Tsar Alexander disallowed this. Suffering from poor health and old wounds, Kościuszko died in Solothurn at age 71 after falling from a horse, developing a fever, and suffering what resembled a stroke a few days later on 15 October 1817. However, DNA studies of Kościuszko's embalmed heart conducted in 2021 and 2022 suggested that endocarditis caused by a Cutibacterium acnes infection was a contributing factor to his death.

Before Kościuszko left for France, he collected his back pay, wrote a will, and entrusted it to Jefferson as executor. Kościuszko and Jefferson had become close friends by 1797 and thereafter corresponded for twenty years in a spirit of mutual admiration. Jefferson wrote that "He is as pure a son of liberty as I have ever known." In the will, Kościuszko left his American estate to be sold to buy the freedom of black slaves, including Jefferson's own, and to educate them for independent life and work.
Several years after Kościuszko's death, Jefferson, aged 77, pleaded an inability to act as executor due to age and the numerous legal complexities of the bequest. It was tied up in the courts until 1856. Jefferson recommended his friend John Hartwell Cocke, who also opposed slavery, as executor, but Cocke likewise declined to execute the bequest.

The case of Kościuszko's American estate reached the U.S. Supreme Court three times. Kościuszko had made four wills, three of which postdated the American one.
None of the money that Kościuszko had earmarked for the manumission and education of African Americans in the United States was ever used for that purpose. Though the American will was never carried out as defined, its legacy was used to found an educational institute at Newark, New Jersey, in 1826, for African Americans in the United States. It was named for Kościuszko.

Primary source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadeusz_Ko%C5%9Bciuszko

Image courtesy of Britannica https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tadeusz-Kosciuszko

10/15/2026

10/14/2026

Two hundred and fifty-two years ago today the First Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Rights and Resolves. These resolutions asserted the natural freedoms of North American colonists through a bill of rights, protested the overreach of Parliament’s Intolerable Acts and argued against the colonies’ lack of representation.

The resolves also outlined the plan of the First Continental Congress to form a Continental Association to boycott English trade and to send a petition to King George III. These assertions, and the subsequent petition to the crown, paved the way to Independence.

Please enjoy these photographs of a Rough Journal of the First Continental Congress, Declaration and Resolves, dated October 14, 1774. These documents can be found in the National Archives.

10/13/2026

October 12, 1773 — America’s first insane asylum opened today in Williamsburg, Virginia for “Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds.”
A two-story brick institution south of Francis Street, this public hospital was founded at the urging of Governor Francis Fauquier, who believed science could be employed to cure “persons who are so unhappy as to be deprived of their reason.”

10/09/2026

09/26/2026

On this day in 1777, British troops marched triumphantly into Philadelphia, cheered by Loyalists lining the street. (The Patriots in the city had largely fled to outlying parts of Pennsylvania, as had the Continental Congress.) They would occupy the city for close to ten months. It was an ill-advised move on General Richard Howe's part. Philadelphia had very little value as a strategic location; the significance of its capture was largely symbolic, as this was the place where the "damned rebels" had declared their independence from the mother country. Howe may have been thinking of Philadelphia as the capital of the rebellious colonies, and thinking that, as in standard European conflicts, the capture of the capital is essentially the end of the war. Plus, he had been encouraged by local Loyalists to believe that the city and surrounding areas were chock-full of fellow Loyalists eager to enlist in the fight, and were just waiting for the city's "liberation" to give them that opportunity. Neither was the case. These colonies weren't really one country, and Philadelphia wasn't a real capital. And while the region did have a lot of Loyalists, not so many of them, it turned out, were actually ready to don a uniform, shoulder a gun, and put themselves into the cannonfire for the cause. Meanwhile, Howe's focus on Philadelphia diverted troops from where they were more sorely needed further north; as a result, the British suffered a massive defeat at Saratoga, leading to the surrender of five thousand men AND the French alliance. Howe would be replaced in the aftermath (after submitting a "You can't fire me, I quit" resignation), and his successor would be ordered to abandon the city, surrendering it without a shot. Costly indeed!

On this day in 1777 the British army commanded by General William Howe marched into Philadelphia, capturing the de facto capital of the United States.

After sailing his army from New York to Head of Elk, Maryland (today’s Elkton) on the Chesapeake Bay, Howe moved toward Philadelphia. Meanwhile, George Washington hurriedly brought his Continental army down from New York and positioned it to block Howe’s advance. On September 11 the two armies collided at Brandywine Creek, about 20 miles from Philadelphia. The Continentals fought bravely but were forced to withdraw after a bold flanking maneuver by Howe. Nine days later a daring British night attack took the Pennsylvania Division of General Anthony Wayne by surprise at the Battle of Paoli, inflicting heavy casualties on them while suffering minimum losses of their own.

After Washington advised Congress that the city could no longer be defended, Congress evacuated, reconvening in York, about 100 miles to the west.

Six days after the American defeat at Paoli, Howe and his army marched into Philadelphia, to the delight of the city’s Loyalists and to the bitter resentment of its Patriots. Thousands of Loyalists lined the streets, cheering the arrival of the Redcoats. Meanwhile, thousands of Patriots fled the city, abandoning their homes to the mercy of the Loyalists and the British.

Washington struck back on October 4, at the Battle of Germantown. But although the Americans again fought well, the battle plan went awry and again the army was forced to withdraw.

Unable to hold or recapture Philadelphia, Washington took his army into winter quarters at Valley Forge, a place that would enter the collective American memory as a symbol of suffering, but also of resilience and determination. Meanwhile, the British would enjoy a mostly comfortable winter in Philadelphia.

When the American soldiers who survived the winter at Valley Forge marched out the following spring, they were better trained than ever before. And they had acquired a powerful ally.

Fearful of being trapped in Philadelphia by the French navy, the British evacuated the city in June 1778 and began marching back toward New York, along with three thousand Loyalist refugees. The occupation had lasted eight months.

09/20/2026

Remember Paoli!

On the night of September 20, 1777, a division of Pennsylvania Continentals under the command of General Anthony Wayne (approximately 1,500 men) was encamped near Paoli Tavern in Chester County, Pennsylvania. What happened that night became one of the most controversial and notorious episodes of the Revolutionary War.

Wayne’s orders were to harass the British and screen George Washington’s main army, following the Battle of Brandywine. Believing that the British were unaware of his location, Wayne’s defense of his camp was grossly inadequate. In fact, the British knew precisely where Wayne’s men were camped, likely having been informed by local Loyalists.

After nightfall, 1,200 British troops under the command of Major General Charles Grey marched quietly toward the American camp. Grey ordered that the flints be removed from the muskets of all his men. To assure complete surprise, the attack was to be made with bayonets only.

Led by a captured local blacksmith who was forced to act as a guide, Grey’s men silently approached the unsuspecting American camp. At about 10 p.m. they stormed out of the woods with fixed bayonets, taking the Patriots completely by surprise.

Wayne’s men were routed suddenly and completely, fleeing in disorder. Hearing the fighting, a force of inexperienced Maryland militia under General William Smallwood rushed to Wayne’s aid, but they too were quickly routed.

At a cost of fewer than 20 casualties, the British had defeated and scattered an entire division of American Continentals and over 2,000 militiamen. For his bold attack and victory, Grey was afterwards known as “No Flint” Grey.

In the aftermath of the battle reports soon began to emerge that the British had slaughtered American soldiers after they surrendered. “The annals of the age cannot produce another such scene of butchery,” Major Samuel Hay of the 7th Pennsylvania Regiment declared.

Whether or not what happened at the Battle of Paoli was a “massacre,” as it came to be called, remains controversial. Certainly there was a huge disparity in casualties, a fact that often suggests that no quarter was given to surrendering men. But many Americans were in fact taken prisoner (albeit badly wounded in many cases), giving support to the contention that the British did not refuse quarter, at least not to everyone. In any event, reports of the “Paoli Massacre” were accepted as fact in the American army and “Remember Paoli!” became a Patriot battle cry.

Wayne’s men vowed to take revenge for the massacre. Showing their defiance and contempt for the vow, Grey’s men dyed their hat feathers red, to make it easier for the Americans to identify them in battle.

In a court martial proceeding he had demanded to clear his name, Wayne was subsequently exonerated of any misconduct.

Twenty months after the deadly and humiliating defeat at Paoli, Wayne led a nighttime surprise assault on the British fort at Stony Point, New York. Shouting “Remember Paoli!” Wayne and his men captured the fort and took over 500 prisoners.

The Battle of Paoli, often remembered as the Paoli Massacre, occurred on September 20, 1777, two hundred forty-nine years ago today.

The 1782 painting by Xavier della Gatta depicting the battle is titled “A Dreadful Scene of Havoc.” The painting was commissioned by a British officer who participated in the battle. In the lower right of the painting, British light infantrymen are depicted bayoneting prone Continentals.

09/18/2026

An American Moment, 250 years ago, September 18, 1776. Massachusetts Resolve to encourage the manufacture of Fire-Arms:

Whereas, notwithstanding the encouragement hitherto given by this State for the manufacturing of Fire-Arms, a sufficient number has not yet been obtained:

Therefore, Resolved, That for every effective and substantial fi***rm which shall be manufactured in this State, with a good barrel of three feet and nine inches in length, that will carry an ounce ball, with a good bridle-lock, a good bayonet, with a blade not less than eighteen inches in length, with a scabbard for the same, a steel ramrod with a spring to retain the same, two loops for gun-slings, and the manufacturer's name stamped or engraved on the lock, and which shall be delivered at Boston or Watertown, to the Commissary-General, for the time being, on or before the first day of October, in the year 1777, there shall be allowed and paid out of the publick Treasury of this State, to the owner thereof, the sum of four pounds; provided, always, that the owner of each fire-arm which shall be received for this Slate, shall produce a certificate that such fire-arm has been proved by firing the same properly loaded with four inches and a half of powder, at least, with a wad thereon, and a ball with a wad upon it, in the presence of one or more Selectmen of that town where such fire-arm was manufactured.

American Archives, Peter Force, Series 5, Vol. 2, 778.

© 2026 Clifford Olsen/1776 American Moments

09/12/2026

Beautifully succinct and precise account of the fighting at Brandywine.

Afternoon to the end of the Battle of Brandywine
Howe was now to the rear of the American right.
By about 2:00 P.M., after receiving these new reports of Howe's movements that Washington recognized the dreadful truth: Howe had successfully moved around him and was positioned to attack from the north.
Howe's column was at that moment nearing the end of a grueling seventeen-mile march in sweltering heat, the fog having burned off early that morning. The British crossed the west branch of the Brandywine at Trimble's Ford at about 11 o'clock and then marched east, crossing the east branch at Jeffries' Ford about three hours later. They had to "cross these two branches in up to three feet of water." At 2:30 P.M. the tired men were given leave to throw themselves down on some heights to the east of the ford and rest for an hour. Bland sighted an advanced party of Howe's column about two miles southeast of Jeffries' Ford at a quarter after one o'clock, but his scribbled note conveying this information to Washington came too late.
By this point, with the British already moving toward his rear, Washington had no choice but to make defensive dispositions. He therefore ordered his reserve of Stirling's and Stephen's divisions to take up positions near Birmingham meeting- house, a small Quaker church on the east side of the road leading southeast from Jeffries' Ford and about two miles north of Chad's Ford. Directly across the road to the west was Birmingham Hill, a small eminence that was nevertheless reasonably well-suited for defense.
Sullivan had meanwhile received another report from Bland of British movements "in the Rear of my Right about two miles Coming Down." The colonel added that he had seen "Dust Rise back in the Country for above an hour." The situation demanded swift measures, and Washington responded by ordering Sullivan to abandon Brinton's Ford and join Stirling and Stephen near Birmingham meeting-house, where Sullivan would take overall command of the three divisions. While putting his division into motion, Sullivan encountered Col. Hazen, who declared that the enemy were "Close upon his Heels," testimony backed up by the almost immediate sighting of the British advance guard. Sullivan rushed his men to take up positions to Stirling's left on Birmingham Hill, with Stephen's division already in place on the right. Inadequately trained as the Americans were in drill, this nevertheless took some time, especially given the rough terrain.
Howe knew his dominating position and could afford to show a "Cheerful Countenance" to his officers, with whom he chatted amiably as he observed the American deployments. His troops meanwhile formed into line for the critical assault on Birmingham Hill. The attack began at about four o'clock, before Sullivan's division had a chance to take up proper positions on the American left. On the right, Stirling and Stephen's well-sited 3 and 4 pounder guns, which had been dragged up the hill with tremendous effort, tore holes with canister and grape shot in the ranks of the advancing Hessian jägers and British grenadiers. The British were forced to halt and take cover a short distance from the base of the hill. "The small arms fire was terrible," wrote one jäger, "the counter-fire from the enemy, especially against us, was the most concentrated."
Sullivan's men hurried to take up their positions but were forced to march "through a narrow lane," where Hessian grenadiers who had clambered up the slope picked them off by the dozens. On this side of the hill, the Hessian grenadiers and the Guards were to their delight able to advance out of the line of fire of the American artillery. Their assault threw Sullivan's men into utter confusion. Sullivan himself was away on the right conferring with Stirling and Stephen, but Brigadier General Preudhomme de Borré, the French commander of the 2d Brigade who commanded in Sullivan's absence, fled with his men (he was forced out of the service after the battle). On the way down the hill Borré showed Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Smith of the 4th Maryland "some scratches on his cheek, which he said had been done by the English firing fish-hooks, but more probably by the briars." Sullivan had meanwhile returned to rally his men, but "no Sooner did I form one party but that which I had before formed would Run off."
The fight for Birmingham Hill was nevertheless far from over. Hazen's Regiment, still in good order, formed up on Stirling's left facing the Hessian grenadiers. The British at the base of the hill had meanwhile brought up cannon to bombard the American artillery, but though outgunned the American gunners returned fire as long as possible. "The Enemy Soon began to bend their principal force against the Hill," Sullivan later wrote, "& the fire was Close & heavy for a Long time & Soon became General . . . five times did the Enemy drive our Troops from the Hill & as often was it Regained & the Summit often Disputed almost muzzle to muzzle." Several companies of the British 1st Light Infantry, hoping to gain the east slope of the hill, attempted to bypass the Birmingham Meeting-house, but here they were met by a withering fire from Colonel Thomas Marshall's Virginia Regiment stationed behind the meeting-house wall. The British infantry sustained severe casualties before they were able to gain a blind spot on the slope out of sight of both Marshall's men and the artillery on the hill. At this point Howe and Cornwallis ordered a series of attacks on the left, right and center of the hill, gradually forcing the Americans off with substantial casualties on both sides. Hazen's regiment was all but shattered by the Hessian grenadiers while Stirling's division retreated in fairly good order; most of Stephen's division was disorganized if not routed altogether, a fate that was prevented by a gallant rearguard action of Woodford's Virginians. After an hour and forty minutes of what General Conway called the most "Close & Severe a fire" he ever saw, the British had possession of the hill; but not, Sullivan claimed, "till we had almost Covered the Ground between [the hill] and Bremingham [sic] meeting House with The Dead Bodies of the Enemy."
After the loss of Birmingham Hill, the American priority for the rest of the battle had to be the successful withdrawal of the remainder of the army. There could be no question of reforming either Sullivan's or Stephen's divisions, which were no longer effective fighting formations. Conway was, however, able to form a second defensive line out of his 3d Pennsylvania brigade on another small hill a short distance southeast of Birmingham Hill. The British came on quickly, routing in the process those remnants of Stephen's division which had been too slow to retreat. Unfortunately for the Americans, Conway's men initially resisted boldly but, lacking bayonets themselves, were averse to facing the British bayonet charge and broke very suddenly. The Marquis de Lafayette, who had come to observe the attack and attempted to rally Conway's men, received a British musket ball in the leg and had to be carried off the field.
What remained of the three divisions fled a mile further east to Dilworthtown, just north of which place Greene's division was forming up. Washington had dispatched Greene to this place after learning of the fall of Birmingham Hill, and he now arrived to supervise the positioning of Greene's troops. By this time the 1st division was the last fresh American division on the field. Knyphausen had assaulted Wayne's and Maxwell's positions around Chad's Ford at five o'clock, rapidly driving them back and capturing all of Procter's guns. The position at Dilworthtown was therefore critical if the rest of the army (including Armstrong's militia, which had not been engaged but was busy retreating eastward) was to be preserved.
That this position held until sundown was partly because of Washington's careful positioning, at Sullivan's suggestion, of Brigadier Generals Peter Muhlenberg's and George Weedon's brigades respectively on the front and flank of the British advance. As the Hessian grenadiers marched on Dilworthtown, Captain Johann Ewald wrote, they "received intense grapeshot and musketry fire [apparently from Muhlenberg's men] which threw [the Hessians] into disorder, but they recovered themselves quickly, deployed, and attacked the village." Brigadier-General James Agnew's brigade of redcoats, occupying at Ewald's suggestion a hill on the flank, "ran into several American regiments" of Weedon's brigade, preparing to fall upon the Hessians' flank. "At this point," Ewald wrote, "there was terrible firing, and half of the Englishmen and nearly all of the officers of these two regiments (they were the 44th and 64th regiments) were slain." Fortunately for the British, an English artillery officer arrived opportunely with two six-pounders on Weedon's flank, breaking up their attack. By this time it was growing dark and Greene's men could follow their compatriots to Chester while the British remained in Dilworthtown, tending the wounded of both sides.
The Americans fought valiantly, but they had been outwitted on the rolling hills along the Brandywine.
Nightfall finally brought an end to the battle. The defeated Americans retreated to Chester. The bulk of the army arrived by midnight with the remainder trickling in until dawn.
General Howe's exhausted men camped on the battlefield and the surrounding countryside including the farmyards of Benjamin Ring and Gideon Gilpin.
British Captain John Andre wrote in his journal, "Night and the fatigue the soldiers had undergone prevented any pursuit."
Lieutenant James McMichael of the 13th Pennsylvania Continental Regiment wrote that "this day for a severe and successive engagement exceeded all I ever saw." The casualties reflected the bitterness with which it was fought. Had the attack on Birmingham Hill begun earlier, the defeat may have turned into a rout. Howe could thank fortune, his superior intelligence gathering and the efficacy of the British bayonet for his victory. The Americans, for their part, were beaten but not broken; they knew very well that in general they had stood up well to the professional British soldiers. It was not without reason that Washington wrote John Hancock from Chester shortly after midnight: "Notwithstanding the misfortune of the day, I am happy to find the troops in good spirits; and I hope another time we shall compensate for the losses now sustained."