Beyond Battlefields: Culture and Conflict through the Philadelphia Campaign

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Beyond Battlefields: Culture and Conflict through the Philadelphia Campaign," at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In the summer of 1777, the seat of the American Revolution shifted from New York to Philadelphia. Stretching from the Head of Elk, Maryland, to the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse, New Jersey, the Philadelphia Campaign witnessed the Continental Army and the British Crown Forces marching, camping, skirmishing, and engaging battles across portions of Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Over the last fifty years, archaeologists have studied many sites associated with the conflicts and the lives of the soldiers who were engaged in the campaign. This session, though, seeks to expand the interpretation of conflict. Through documentary research, field studies, and the application of technology, the researchers in this session will broadly examine the consequences of the campaign on the social fabric of the 18th century landscape.

Other Keywords
Memory • conflict • American Revolution • Philadelphia Campaign • Fortification • Archives • African Americans • Revolutionary War • Cannon • GIS mapping

Geographic Keywords
Philadelphia • Mid-Atlantic • South Jersey • Chester County, Pennsylvnia • Middle Atlantic, Delaware Valley • Philadelphia Campaign • Southeastern PA/Philadelphia

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-8 of 8)

  • Documents (8)
Documents
  • "‘All this appears to be forgotten now’": Memory, Race, and Commemoration at Red Bank Battlefield (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jennifer L. Janofsky.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Beyond Battlefields: Culture and Conflict through the Philadelphia Campaign" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 1831, businessman and leader of Philadelphia’s free Black community, James Forten, wrote to William Lloyd Garrison. Only 54 years had passed since the Battle of Red Bank yet, Forten notes, the memory of Black participation in the battle had already faded. For Forten, this memory burned bright and...

  • The Brandywine Battlefield – Anthropological Approaches in Battlefield Analysis, Prediction, and Investigation to interpret differing realities of Landscape and Strategy. (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kevin Donaghy.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Beyond Battlefields: Culture and Conflict through the Philadelphia Campaign" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Battlefield archaeologists as “specialists”, with few exceptions, have yet to achieve interdisciplinary recognition. Battlefield investigations have provided confirmation and contradictions to the accepted historical records and the problem is when the results of these investigations fail to be...

  • Destruction & Wanton Waste: The Impact of War in a Peaceful Valley (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrew M. Outten.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Beyond Battlefields: Culture and Conflict through the Philadelphia Campaign" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. On September 11, 1777, General Sir William Howe’s Crown Forces engaged General George Washington at the Battle of Brandywine. Their battlefield, one of the richest agricultural and milling regions in the mid-Atlantic colonies, was dominated by a large and peaceful Quaker population. Following the...

  • "A Dreadful Scene of Havock": Richard Mansergh St. George and the Battles of Brandywine, Paoli, and Germantown (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew Skic.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Beyond Battlefields: Culture and Conflict through the Philadelphia Campaign" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The battles around Philadelphia in 1777 radically changed the life of Richard Mansergh St. George, a young Irish officer in the British Army. Wounded at Brandywine, a participant in what he described as “a dreadful scene of havock” at Paoli, and shot in the head at Germantown, St. George returned to...

  • "The French Engineer Burst A 24-Pounder In The Fort At Red Banks": Contextualizing An Accidental Artifact (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Robert A. Selig. Elisabeth Lavigne. Wade P. Catts.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Beyond Battlefields: Culture and Conflict through the Philadelphia Campaign" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In the fall of 1777, the Royal Navy was prevented from reaching Philadelphia by river obstructions, a small Pennsylvania Navy, and two forts. Fort Mifflin and Fort Mercer, on opposite sides of the Delaware river, served as the principal American defensive works. On 22 October 1777, Crown Forces...

  • Mapping 1777 Chester County: Harnessing Today’s Technologies to Better Understand the Past (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only John E. Smith III.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Beyond Battlefields: Culture and Conflict through the Philadelphia Campaign" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 2020, the Chester County Archives published their interactive property atlas that documents Chester County’s 1777 property owners, public roads, points of interest, and reported British plundering during the Philadelphia Campaign of the American Revolution. This new research tool was possible...

  • The Memory of Paoli: The Intersections Among Conflict, Memory, Memorial, and Archaeology (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew Kalos.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Beyond Battlefields: Culture and Conflict through the Philadelphia Campaign" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. On the night of September 20, 1777, British General Charles Grey led an elite group of his soldiers on a bayonet raid against American General Anthony Wayne and his encamped Pennsylvania Regulars.  The British burned the camp, injuring many, and killing fifty-two.  The battle quickly became...

  • Rending the Social Fabric: Revolution in Gloucester County, New Jersey, 1774-1779 (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Garry Wheeler Stone.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Beyond Battlefields: Culture and Conflict through the Philadelphia Campaign" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 1774, New Jerseyans agreed: No taxation without representation. This unity disintegrated when a New Jersey Provincial Congress prepared for armed resistance to Great Britain. The population split between those that wanted to remain part of the British empire (Tories or Loyalists), those that...