Sandy Hollow

Sandy Hollow Heritage Park, more than 40 acres owned by Birmingham Township, with a paved walking trail and interpretive signs, holds the ground where the last major fighting of the Battle of Brandywine took place on the evening of 11 September 1777. Years of farm traffic had worn a lane there down into a narrow pass, and as the American right gave way, George Weedon's Virginia brigade held that gap at the point of the bayonet while the rest of the army got away. Both sides took heavy casualties. Weedon's brigade belonged to Nathanael Greene's division, which had been held in reserve and covered about four miles in 45 minutes to reach the fight. Washington had been slow to accept that the main British force was attacking from the north.

At about 5 p.m. he pressed an elderly farmer, Joseph Brown, into guiding him to the fighting by the shortest route, urging him on with "Push along, old man, push on!" Greene opened his ranks to let the retreating troops pass, re-formed them, and held off the pursuing British for nearly an hour. Once word came that the American left had withdrawn safely from Chadds Ford along the Chester Road, now U.S. Route 1, Weedon's Virginians fell back in the twilight.

Darkness ended the British pursuit, and the army retreated to Chester, most of it arriving around midnight. The British captured 11 of the 14 American artillery pieces that day. The Bennett farm beyond the hollow served as a dressing station for the wounded. That winter Muhlenberg's and Weedon's Virginians built their huts side by side on the outer line at Valley Forge.