blondesforreagan:blondesforreagan:The Paoli Massacre, September 20, 1777Memorials and remembrances f

blondesforreagan:blondesforreagan:The Paoli Massacre, September 20, 1777Memorials and remembrances from in and around Paoli, Chester County, PAhttp://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/Paoli.htmlAround here are signs that say “Remember Paoli!”  Men murdered in their camp as they slept.  Prisoners were said to be denied surrender and instead butchered, the after hours attack against the rules of engagement at the time.  This was only days after the defeat at Brandywine (9/11/1777), when the British troops attacked the American encampment near the General Warren Inn in Malvern, PA in the night with the intent on shutting down the revolutionary cause while they were down.  The massacre was just that - 53 dead, many pleading for their lives (Although there were 71 wounded, but all told over 250 people were dead, wounded or missing while the British lost 5 and had only 7 wounded).  Flints had been removed from the muskets so that there would be no chance of an accidental shot ringing out to signal the Red Coat’s arrival at camp and all the men of General Anthony Wayne (he wasn’t ‘Mad Anthony’ yet) were killed with bayonet or sword or dagger.   After this horrible defeat, the British marched on and would occupy Philadelphia, but it was the tales of the brutality of that single night of terror and injustice of that night that turned the tide of the war.  Or so the tales are around here - it is not one of the major battles mentioned in the history books but the facts are there  People started to rally, more men would eventually pick up arms.  Even with the added deterrent of that winter at Valley Forge (1777/1778) only five miles away from the site of the blood bath did not keep break the American Spirit and things forever changed after Paoli.  —LJR -- source link

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