Matson's Ford, Pennsylvania
Matson's Ford, Pennsylvania
MATSON'S FORD, PENNSYLVANIA. 11 December 1777. After Howe's sortie toward Whitemarsh from 5 to 8 December, Cornwallis was sent from Philadelphia with thirty-five hundred men and almost all the dragoons and mounted jägers to forage along the south bank of the Schuylkill. He left the night of 10-11 December—at 3 a.m., according to André. By coincidence, Washington started from Whitemarsh toward Valley Forge winter quarters on the 11th, and his leading elements clashed with the foragers at the Gulph, near Matson's Ford (modern West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania) just after crossing the Schuylkill. The American vanguard withdrew, destroying its makeshift bridge of wagons and planks. The raiders returned to Philadelphia the evening of the 12th with two thousand sheep and cattle (Baurmeister, Journals, p. 139). Washington's army stayed on the north bank through the 13th, remained in the vicinity of the Gulph until the 19th, and then moved to Valley Forge.
SEE ALSO Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baurmeister, Carl Leopold. Revolution in America: Confidential Letters and Journals, 1776–1784. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1957.
Freeman, Douglass Southall. George Washington. 7 vols. New York: Scribner, 1948–1957.