You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. Hello and thank you for joining the American Revolution.

Today episode 160 the Paley, and the fall of Philadelphia.

The last week we followed the Continental Army as it crossed the Schuylkal River

and deployed along what was then the eastern border of

Philadelphia awaiting the British Army's final push to take the city. The

British General Howe had defeated General Washington at Brandywine,

and after the rained out battle of the clouds,

Hal faced virtually no military opposition

as his army advanced on Philadelphia.

General Hal though seemed in no particular hurry to enter the city.

After the Battle of Brandywine, the bulk of his army remained in camp for five days.

After learning that the Continental's were advancing toward him, Hal finally marched out his

Army to do battle, only to see the continentals withdraw under a heavy thunderstorm.

The British then advanced northward, but made no attempt to cross the Schuylkal River and enter

the city. On September 18th, Colonel Hamilton warned Congress

that the British could be in Philadelphia that very night. Hamilton's letter and the warnings of other officers set off a panic within the city.

The President of the Continental Congress, John Hancock,

reportedly passed along the alarm to the rest of Congress, then loaded everything

he could into a collection of wagons and carriages, and left the city at 3 a.m. the next morning. Most other delegates did much the same. Two days later, the expected

arrival of the British Army in Philadelphia was still, well, just an expectation. The British Army camped

patiently along the west bank of the Schuylkal River. On September 21st,

John Adams, who had fled to Trenton, New Jersey, wrote in his diary,

...