r since we landed at the Head of Elk."

Along the hill-slopes, on the east side of the Brandywine, from Chad's
Ford up to Brinton's, a distance of about three miles, the Americans lay
on the night of September 10th. Wayne was posted to guard the lower
ford, and Sullivan had his own division and those of Stirling and
Stephen stretched up along the stream. Greene's division formed the
reserve. Sullivan's duties included the guarding of the fords above
Brinton's, and he had become possessed of the unfortunate idea that
there were but three of these fordable, and that beyond the three in
question there was no place for a distance of twelve miles where the
hostile army could cross. He therefore sent detachments on this evening
of the 10th to the three fords--the Delaware regiment to Jones's, and
battalions of Hazen's regiment to Wistar's and Buffington's. With this
he rested content. It is, however, true that the cavalry at his command
seems to have been pitifully meagre: he asserts that on the morning of
the battle he had _four_ light-horsemen only, two of whom he sent on
scouting duty, retaining the other two to serve as couriers to
head-quarters.

Below the line of Washington's main army, at Pyle's Ford, were posted
the Pennsylvania militia under General Armstrong, and below their
position the Brandywine enters rocky hills, flowing between steep banks
that forbid the easy passage of an army.

Washington slept on this night at Benjamin Ring's, just east of Chad's
Ford, and La Fayette at Gideon Gilpin's, near by. Both the dwellings are
still standing and occupied as places of residence. To defend the
crossing at the ford a battery of six guns was planted in front of John
Chad's house. Its location may yet be distinctly traced. West of the
stream, Maxwell's riflemen were posted well out on the road toward
Kennet Square, where General Howe occupied Wiley's tavern, an ancient
hostelry, as his quarters. He had formed his plan of attack--to engage
the attention of the Americans by a sharp attack on the road to the
crossing at Chad's with Knyphausen's division of five thousand men,
while Cornwallis should proceed, upon roads concealed from the American
view by distance and intervening forests, far up the creek to the fords
that Sullivan had not guarded, and, crossing there, descend with
crushing force upon the American line. Sullivan himself declared, in
letters written after the battle, that he had anticipated such an
attack: