Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913 edition. Excerpt: ... On the same day the new commander in chief held a council of war, which decided in favor of evacuating the city; and this decision seems to have been communicated to a meeting of "gentlemen, merchants, and citizens" that took place at the British Tavern. The local historian, Westcott, says that notice had been previously given that all deserters from the American army who wished to go to England would be sent, and that "many availed themselves of the privilege." Probably, the news of the intended evacuation did not come as an entire surprise to the community, for Mrs. Drinker recorded in her Journal, under date of May 23d, that preparations for the departure were being made by "many of the inhabitants." On June 3d three regiments crossed the Delaware and encamped near Cooper's Ferry and Gloucester. Two days later Captain Johann Heinrichs of the Hessian Jager Corps, who was then at the Neck near the city, wrote to his brother that "about one thousand royally inclined families" in Philadelphia were "willing to leave hearth and home and with their chattels go with the army." A few days later still the British Peace Commissioners arrived in the city; and one of them, Lord Carlisle, wrote that he found everything in confusion, "the army upon the point of leaving town, and about three thousand of the miserable inhabitants embarked on board our ships, to convey them from a place where they thought they would receive no mercy from those who will take possession after us." In a letter of June 15th to the colonial secretary in London, the Commissioners stated that they had found the greater part of those who had put themselves under the King's protection either retiring on board ships in the Delaware River, or endeavoring to effect their...
