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Show THE RATTLE OF OERMANTOWN. Rarely does a growing city reach out its tenacles of new factories and dwellings and encompass an entire ( attlefield. Yet this happened in Philadelphia, and the "battlefield within a city," will be one of the at-i at-i actions to the many visitors to the Sesquicentennial International Exposition Expo-sition which opens there on June 1, 0 2 6. During the Revolutionary War, he history of which Philadelphia played such a prominent part, the Liritish Army went into encampment at Germantown, at me time a small village a few miles to thei north. The (own consisted of quaint stone build lugs, stretched along two miles of an old road that in the days of William Penn had been a cowpath. It was the Autumn of 17 7 7-7 S, and the British had just descended upon the occupied Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence Independ-ence had been signed a year befoie. Just prior to going into his histor-is histor-is winter encampment at Valley. Forge, Washington with ll.OOu troops swept down on the British and totally surprised them. He had almost the entire British army beat-ing beat-ing a hasty retreat when an odd inci-: inci-: dent happened that turned almost certain victory into humiliating de-! de-! feat. ! Six companies of fleeing British il, J fantrymen sought refuge in a huge stone mansion. They barricaded the ; doors and prepared to fight while ! their ammunition lasted. But the ati-j ati-j vancing Colonial troops, flushed with possibility of a quick victory passed the house and pushed forward after the retreating Britishers. Later, when Washington ordered reinformecents up from the reai , these fell upon the house and at- I tempted to dislodge the force within. The sounds of firing in the rear struck terror in the hearts of the patriots who had gone ahead. Om-j eers atul men alike became possessed with the idea that they had been surrounded sur-rounded by a strong British forco, and they began to fall back. Soon the, entire Continental Army was in re- ' treat. The Chew House, the mansion in i which the British infantry took ref-; ref-; uge, still stands. It is now a mu-skUiii mu-skUiii and contains many objects of historical interest connected with the battle. Its heavy stone walls still aro marked from the volleys of Continental Conti-nental bullets fired against it in tnu vain effort to dislodge the enemy. Today the entire battlefield of Germantown is within the built-up limits o fPhiladelphia. The Chew House and a few of the other stone buildings of the original settlemenc are the only ones that have withstood with-stood the advance of modern building. |