Fort Mifflin

DEBIT ENTRIES

1777, June 1--During the campaign around Trenton the management of the secret service was largely in the hands of Major John Clark, Jr., who had been Aide to Major-General Nathanael Greene, and was then Major of the 2d Pennsylvania Battalion of the Flying Camp. Later he became the Auditor of Accounts for the Main Army.

1777, June 1--John Parke Custis, the only son of Martha Washington, was Captain of Virginia Militia and acted as a volunteer, extra aide to Washington, but without rank or appointment as such, during the Yorktown campaign. He contracted camp-fever from exposure at that siege and died at Eltham, Virginia, November 5, 1781.

1777, August--Colonel Stephen Moylan, formerly Muster-Master-General of the Continental Army. Appointed Aide to Washington, March 6, 1776, and Quartermaster-General in June of that year; he resigned, as Quartermaster-General, but acted as Aide-de-Camp until appointed Colonel of the 4th Continental Dragoons, June 5, 1777. The horse purchased from him was one captured from the British light cavalry.

1777, August 28--The army remained in winter quarters at Morristown until May 28 when it moved to Middlebrook. There it remained until June 24; it advanced to Quibbletown June 25 on the retirement of the British from Brunswick to Amboy. To this threat Sir William Howe at once replied by advancing with his whole force and Washington fell back to Middlebrook. July 1 the British again retreated and this time crossed over to Staten Island, leaving Jersey entirely free. Washington then returned to Morristown--the accounts show that on July 3 he stopped at Bullion's Tavern and the expense totaled £3--as a central location from which aid could be given to either the Highlands of the Hudson or Philadelphia in case the British moved either way. An advance up the Hudson to meet Burgoyne's expedition from Canada being the more probable, Washington moved Sullivan's brigade toward that river as far as Pompton and, on July 11, the entire army marched to Suffern's Tavern at the entrance of Smith's Clove, a valley or gorge, behind the West Point Mountains. The daily expense account shows that on July 11 £2 11s. was paid to Mr. Hathaway for the use of his house near Pompton Plains; July 14 Mrs. Van Twiller, near Suffern's, was paid £5 12s. 6d. for the use of her house and the trouble caused thereby. This same day the General Orders are dated from Van Aulen's. Suffern's was reached July 15 and July 21 a letter is dated from "11 miles in the Clove"; this was at Galloway's, who was paid, July 23, £4 5s. for the use of his house. On receiving intelligence of Howe's fleet having sailed from Sandy Hook, Washington immediately moved south and July 23 the army was at Ramapo, New Jersey; July 25 it reached Pompton; July 26 the accounts show an expense of £2 5s. for the use of house room at Mandeville's; July 26 Washington was at Morristown; July 28 at Flemingtown; July 29 a Mrs. Lowry was paid £1 2s. 6d. and that same day the troops began crossing the Delaware at Coryell's Ferry, sixteen miles above Trenton. August 1 Washington inspected the river defenses of Philadelphia, Fort Mifflin on Mud Island, Fort Mercer at Red Bank, and the fortifications at Billingsport on the Jersey side of the Delaware. He was at Marcus Hook, now Linwood, eighteen miles southeast of Philadelphia, and dined and supped at Chester, Pennsylvania, that same day. August 2 he returned to Philadelphia. The British fleet, after entering Delaware Bay, put out to sea again July 31 and the Continental Army waited at Schuylkill Falls until August 8 before Washington, hearing nothing of the fleet, again started the army slowly back toward the Hudson. From August 4 to 8 the orders are dated from Colonel Hill's Roxboro. August 5 Daniel Smith was paid £263 4s. for the use of his tavern during this period of uncertainty. August 6 Washington was at Germantown, and August 13 there is an item of 17s. 6d. paid to Colonel Henry Hill's servants in gratuities for their trouble in cleaning the house in Indian Queen Lane, one mile east of Schuylkill falls, after Headquarters left it. At Neshaminy Camp, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Washington received word that the British fleet had been seen off Sinepuxent, Maryland. The army halted, and Washington established his Headquarters at Mrs. Moland's house, a stone dwelling, about half a mile above Hartsville on the old York Road, known then as Cross Roads, Pennsylvania. Here he remained until August 23, when definite information was received that the British fleet was actually in the Chesapeake Bay. Mrs. Moland was paid £5 5s. for the use of her house and furniture and through Philadelphia to Berby and Wilmington, which was reached as the British commenced landing at the Head of Elk, as the head of the Chesapeake Bay is called. On the reconnoissance of August 26 Washington, with all of the cavalry except Sheldon's regiment, went within tow miles of the Head of Elk. August 27 the accounts show an item of £63 12s. paid to George Forsyth, at Wilmington, for lodging. August 29 to September 2 Washington spent in examining the country and the different roads, and the expense account from August 30 to September 2 shows bills at Elk, at Eagle Tavern, Chester, Derby, Ciscill's, and Christiana Bridge, Delaware. On September 3 the first encounter with the British took place at Wilmington and September 6 the army marched to Newport, Delaware, there or four miles from Wilmington and about eight or ten from the enemy. September 9 the orders are dated from Birmingham, and that day the Continentals fell back to Chad's Ford on the Brandywine and there awaited the British.