tward from the
point to which Joseph Brown guided the general. In July, 1825, when La
Fayette revisited the ground, he drove up from Wilmington in a carriage
with the Messrs. Du Pont, whom he had been visiting. Great crowds
accompanied him over the historic field, and as he drove along the road
near the place already described, the carriage was stopped and the
gallant old gentleman rose to his feet to point out the position in
which he sustained his wound. "It was," he said, "somewhere on yonder
slope. The exact spot I cannot now tell."[A]

[Footnote A: The precise nature of La Fayette's wound is differently
stated in the chronicles. It was a gun-shot injury in his left leg, and
did not immediately disable him. He rode that night to Chester, and
thence reached Bristol, from which place Henry Laurens took him to the
gentle nursing of the Moravian Sisters at Bethlehem. He remained there
two months before he rejoined the army.]

Baffled as Howe was by the stubborn resistance after Greene arrived,
this check was almost the only American triumph in the day's contest.
There was hard fighting from five o'clock until dusk. Posted in strong
positions, well supported by the artillery, commanded by Washington
himself, the patriot troops displayed their most soldierly qualities.
The brigades of Muhlenberg, the Episcopal rector, and of Weeden, the
Virginia innkeeper, stood well and fought bravely. History preserves
especially the names of three regiments as earning distinction--one from
Pennsylvania, under Colonel Stewart; and two from Virginia--the Tenth,
under Colonel Stevens, and the Third, commanded by John Marshall,
afterward chief-justice of the United States. The Marylanders, under
Smallwood, and the Delaware regiment, acquitted themselves with probably
equal credit. Amongst the officers, Sullivan, Stirling and Conway had
been conspicuous for courage; La Fayette was wounded; De Fleury had his
horse shot under him (Congress soon voted him another); Pulaski had
rendered gallant service, earning early promotion; the marquis de la
Rouerie was a prisoner.

But though resisting so well, the effect was only to cover the needful
retreat. Down at Chad's Ford the conflict had been quickly over after
the fighting began at Birmingham. The sound of the guns from the hills
set Knyphausen in motion in earnest after all his feints and pretences
since morning. He pressed forward to cross the creek. Wayne fought him
well a little while, Pro