Old City – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Isaac Kremer/ January 15, 2023/ downtown, garden, museum, plaza, preservation/ 0 comments

Museum of the American Revolution

Crucial moments in the American Revolution are told through artifacts and interpretive text.

Of particular interest to us as people living in New Jersey was the section documenting Washington’s retreat from November 1776. Washington wrote that he had “not above 3,000 men, and they very much broken and dispirted.” The numbers continued to dwindly with desertions and expiring enlistments. By early December, Washington’s beleaguered troops still remained only a few steps ahead of pursuing enemy forces under British General Charles Cornwallis.

In this, the darkest moment of the war so far, the ragged veterans of the New York Campaign finally got some good news. While stationed on the banks of the Delaware River, reinforcements began to arrive from Pennsylvania.

Across the Delaware River from his army, a small garrison of Hessians had taken up winter quarters in Trenton, New Jersey. These Hessians were the British Army’s shock troops, the Germans hired by King George III to defeat the Revolutionaries. They were considered some of the best soldiers in the world. Their tall brass caps and sharp uniforms contrasted with the American soldiers’ rags. The Hessians expected little threat from Washington’s beleaguered army. They would pay dearly for underestimating the Revolutionaries.

General Washington’s “Ten Crucial Days” lasted from December 25, 1776 to January 4, 1777. In that short period, Washington and his army saved the Revolutionary War effort and perhaps the cause of American independence itself. With a force of only 4000-6000 men, Washington twice attacked the enemy. On Christmas night and the following morning, December 25-26, 1776, he crossed the Delaware River into New JErsey and captured the garrison of 1,500 Hessians at Trenton.

On January 2nd, 5,000 British troops under General Cornwallis counter-attacked. Washington’s force fought until dark, and then quietly marched around Cornwallis’s troops. At dawn, the Americans attacked the British outpost at Princeton. If Washington had lost either battle, he would probably have lost the war. But he won them, and preserved the American Army to fight another day.

A year later on September 26, 1777, the British Army captured Philadelphia. General William Howe’s forces, having defeated General Washington at Brandywine, marked into the Revolutionary capital. In December, the Continental Army encamped at Valley Forge, west of Philadelphia. There, winter patriots warmed with anger, fired by stories of their lost capital. Their determination grew as news spread of American POWs suffering from the most “inhumane treatments that barbarians are capable of inflicting,” as one officer put it.

The encampment at Valley Forge blocked the British from controlling Pennsylvania’s interior. On June 18, 1778, Howe’s forces abandoned Philadelphia to rejoin the main British Army in New York City, with Washington’s army in close pursuit. At the June 28th Battle of Monmouth, Washington’s army nearly defeated Howe. It was the last major battle of the war in the North.

Wait Monument marked the path of the Boston Road through Springfield, Massachusetts. Twenty-five years before Shays rebellion, a traveller named Joseph Wait erected it. A Freemason, he designed it to bear symbols of his fraternity. On the afternoon of January 25, 1787, 1400 rebels marched eight abreast toward the Boston road to attack the Springfield arsenal. The militia in the Arsenal fired their cannon. Grapeshot tore through the rebels and killed three of them as they approached the marker. Some of the iron balls hit the monument and left inch-wide craters over the masonic symbols on its surface. Its pockmarked surface stands a silent testament to the violence between Americans in the mid-1780s.

The Pennsylvania Assembly purchased an elaborately carved chair in 1779 to replace one destroyed during the British occupation of the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) during the winter of 1777-1778. George Washington sat in the chair when he was President of the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The original is on display in Independence Hall. It is known as the “Rising Sun” chair because of Benjamin Franklin’s hopeful observation about the symbol carved on the headrest. As the Convention’s work closed, Franklin announced:

“I have… often in the course of the session… looked at that [sun] behind the president without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting: but now at length I have the happiness to know it is a rising sun and not a setting sun.”

The replica of a sailing vessel brings to life the maritime aspects of the war. Many African Americans served as sailors on privateers. James Forten was born free in Philadelphia, and served as a boy aboard several American privateers. Although he was never a slave, he wanted public recognition of his political rights as a citizen. He hoped military service would help gain him that recognition. He obtained great wealth and became a leader in Philadelphia’s abolition movement.

Near the end of the exhibits is a section on “Unfinished Victories.” Once the Revolutionary War was over, the fruits remained out of reach for many Americans. Families struggled to pay off their debts. The Continental Congress and the state government owed huge sums to foreign powers. Congress had no power to tax the American people. In the years immediately following the war, Americans looked for new solutions. Women were enfranchised to vote in the 1790 and 1797 elections. Later that right was appealed until suffragettes fought and won the right to vote (again).

As we left the museum this raised relief panel of Washington crossing the Delaware caught our attention.

Market Street

Just a few blocks from the museum is Sonny’s Famous Cheesesteaks. Seating is limited and tables are family style, so unless you have a big group, prepare to share with others. While we didn’t visit, Kick Axe Throwing looked fun. While not evident, Market St and 2nd St was also the location of the Old Court House and a once active outdoor market.

Carpenter’s Hall. Meeting place for delegates from the First Continental Congress in 1774. They sought to resolve grievances with Great Britain. Escalating differences between the colonies and King George III led to the American Revolution. Built between 1770 and 1774 to showcase skilled craftsmen, this original building is still owned and operated by The Carpenters’ Company. The first floor exhibits feature 18th century building techniques and original chairs used by the Continental Congress.

Slate Roof House site where Hannah Callowhill Penn and William Penn lived between 1699-1701.