HOSPITALS FOR WOUNDED
REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS
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After the battle of Brandywine it became necessary to
provide hospitals for the sick and wounded. Gen. Lafayette was cared
for by the Moravians at Bethlehem. The German Seventh-day Baptists,
who had a monastic institution at Ephrata, in Lancaster county, and
who were decided Whigs in sentiment, although opposed to war, opened their
whole establishment, and converted their large building into a hospital.
The barn of Joseph Downing, at Downingtown, was used as a hospital, and
also the next summer, its use in 1778 prevented the storing of hay in
it. Forty soldiers were buried on the Downing farm, but no marks now
remain to show the place of interment. In the fall of 1777, Mr.
Downing's team was away in the army, when the seeding was done with an old
mare and oxen, driven by Joseph Downing, Jr., father of Richard I.
Downing, who says he cut up the steps the soldiers used in going up and
down the barn.
The Uwchlan Friends' meeting-house, at Lionville, was occupied as a
hospital. This stone meeting-house was erected in 1756, is still
standing, and used by the society and traces of blood therein are still
visible from the wounds of the Revolutionary soldiers who for months were
lodged in it, many being of the wounded at Paoli. The old
school-house at the intersection of the Valley and Brandywine roads, at
the Turk's Head tavern (now West Chester), was occupied as a hospital for
the accommodation of the wounded Americans who had suffered in the
Brandywine battle, a number of whom died and were buried in the open space
left for the use of the school-house, on the north side of the road
leading to the Brandywine. The hospitals
at Yellow Springs (since called Chester Springs) where Washington had
for a time his headquarters, were well arranged and quite commodious, as,
owing to the Springs having been a place of great resort since 1750, great
improvements for those days had been made to it by John Bailey, a
silversmith of Philadelphia. Washington utilized all these
improvements, especially for the sick and wounded of his men.
The wives of Zachariah Rice and Christian Hench died from typhus fever
contracted in the hospital at the Yellow Springs while on errands of
mercy, carrying food and delicacies to the invalid soldiers. The
following spring a surgeon of the army, named Dr. McCuryher, in going from
the camp to the Yellow Springs, stopped to water his horse in the creek
below the hospital, and the horse becoming frightened, threw his rider,
breaking his neck. The doctor's effects were administered to by Maj.
Christy, who commanded at the hospital, and were sold at public
sale. Maj. George Hartman had seen the notice, and attended the sale
with a view to purchase his silver watch. He purchased it for eight
hundred dollars, Continental money, being his wages for three campaigns as
drummer and driving team for Washington's army while at Valley
Forge. This watch he directed should descend to the eldest son in a
direct line. During the time the army was encamped at Valley Forge,
the hospital at the Yellow Springs was full of soldiers with typhus fever
and smallpox, many of whom died. One of George Hartman's
brothers-in-law, who was at home during the winter and played the fife,
was sent for almost every morning to assist in playing the "Dead
March" at the funeral of a soldier who had died during the night,
numbers of whom lie buried in the meadow in front of the old hospital at
the Yellow Springs. It being a difficult matter to obtain necessary
drugs for the use of the army, our surgeons had recourse to many articles
of our indigenous flora, American senna and white-walnut bark being
substances largely in demand.
On the farm of Herman Prizer, in East Coventry township, formerly stood a
barn, torn down many years ago, which was used as a hospital for the
American forces during the Revolutionary war. About one hundred and
fifty yards northwest of the barn, in a small copse of woods belonging to
John Ellis, Esq., are the graves of sixteen American soldiers. The
mounds over these graves are still visible, being side by side, in a
straight line, and about four feet apart. There are no head or foot
stones. About three hundred yards north of the hospital more
soldiers were buried; but a public road was laid out through this section
many years ago, and the mounds were leveled down to make a thoroughfare
right over the patriots' heads.
Many churches and meeting-houses in Chester County were converted into
hospitals, and among them were the German Reformed church in East Vincent
township, on the Ridge or Nutt's road, and Zion Lutheran church, on the
Schuylkill road, in East Pikeland township, about one mile apart.
Many of the wounded soldiers from the field of Brandywine were removed to
these churches, and their moans and groans as they passed along the roads
gave the inhabitants indications of how near to them the tide of war was
rolling. A small detachment of soldiers accompanied them, and were
encamped for a time in a buck-wheat field belonging to Peter Miller, near
the German Reformed church. The grain was nearly ready for the
sickle, and was wholly destroyed. After the main army took up their
winter quarters, in the month of December, 1777, at Valley Forge, the sick
and wounded were provided for in private houses, meeting-houses, and
wherever suitable accommodations could be had. The German Reformed
and Lutheran churches above alluded to continued to be occupied as
hospitals during the entire winter of 1777-78. The German Reformed
church on the Ridge road, then a log structure, stood on very high ground,
and was visible to the naked eye from the Valley Forge encampment, on the
North Valley hill, and with the aid of a glass one could be very plainly
seen from the other. Geo. Washington, whose heart was with his men,
frequently visited these hospitals, and while at the one on the Ridge road
his headquarters were at an old log house on the farm recently owned by
George Snyder, about one-fourth mile north of the church, and within sight
of it.*
*(In the winter of 1777-78, it is said a detachment from
the British army, probably piloted by Tories, crossed French Creek at what
is now Snyder's Mills, one mile south of the German Reformed church on the
Ridge road, for the purpose of endeavoring to capture Gen. Washington
while he was on a visit to the hospital, but they failed in their
purpose. There was a village of some seventeen houses near where
they crossed the creek, and in their rage they burned these houses, and
killed some of their occupants before they could make their escape.
This is the tradition of that neighborhood.)
A very malignant fever broke out among those quartered in the
churches named, and many of them died. Twenty-two were buried on
grounds belonging to Henry Hipple, Sr., near the East Vincent
church. He always preserved the spot as sacred ground and protected
their graves with a good fence. Two soldiers also died in an old log
barn on the farm lately owned by James Hause, about five hundred yards
from the church, and were buried on the bank of a small stream on the
farm. The place of their burial was marked and is known.
During the same period a number died at Zion church, but there is nothing
to mark their resting-place, and their exact number is not known. In
the year 1831 steps were taken by the military volunteer organizations of
Chester county in inclose the remains of twenty-two solders who were
buried near the church on the Ridge road, and to erect a monument to their
memory. The monument is at the foot of the hill, and is a marble
pyramid about eight feed high, inclosed by a strong wall. [the
remaining information is about the monument]...
The above information was extracted from the
book:
History of Chester County, Pennsylvania;
Futhey & Cope; Louis H. Everts; Philadelphia; 1881.
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