er 5th the whole army moved, except a brigade under General
Irwin, which was left to occupy the defensive works around Wilmington.
On the Red Clay the line extended from near the confluence of that
stream with the Christiana on the left up to Hockessin on the right.
Greene disapproved altogether of the position. He pointed out that it
did not cover Philadelphia, and that it would be easily turned by the
march of Howe northward into Pennsylvania--exactly what subsequently
occurred.

Three days after the line of the Red Clay had been occupied, the
British, having bought and seized horses enough to serve their pressing
needs, began their forward movement. Their tents and heavy baggage, the
last to be disembarked, had now been landed, and the rear, under General
Grant, was ready to follow the onward march. On the 8th, therefore,
Cornwallis extended his left flank well up into the country above
Newark, far outreaching the American lines, while a strong column of the
right wing threatened the American front, moving directly toward it as
far as Milltown, only two miles away. This manoeuvre developed the
untenable character of the Red Clay line, and Washington hastened to
extricate himself. On the night of the 8th he broke camp and marched
rapidly northward. At two o'clock on the morning of the 9th he crossed
the Brandywine at Chad's Ford, and posted his army on the high
hill-slopes east of the creek, directly in Howe's path toward
Philadelphia. The British commander, disappointed and chagrined when he
perceived at daylight the escape of the Americans, moved also, and on
the evening of September 10th united his two columns at Kennet Square,
directly west some seven miles, by a well-used road, from Washington's
position.

The Brandywine Valley, near the battle-ground, then, as now, teemed with
agricultural wealth. The fine farms of the thrifty English settlers,
many of whom traced their ownership back in a family line of
three-quarters of a century, spread out along the creek in fine meadows
of natural "green grass," and rolled upward over the hill-slopes, which,
though broken and irregular, nowhere rise precipitously or to great
height. The invading forces, as they marched up from the Chesapeake,
could not but see the richness of the region, and one of their officers,
conversed with by Joseph Townsend, exclaimed "in some rapture," Joseph
says, "You have got a hell of a fine country here; which we have found
to be the case eve