Brandywine
American Right Flank
F) Advanced Guard Fight then Light Infantry of the 1st Line Arrives
This is the terrain northeast of the intersection of Birmingham (or Forks) Road, and Street Road. Birmingham Road, off the picture to the left was the axis of the British advance. Earlier, the British advanced guard had moved down this road, toward the camera, and met some American dragoons. While the mounted jagers charged the dragoons, the two advanced guard light infantry companies moved into this field in order to protect the flank. They then advanced to Street Road, off the picture to the right, which is roughly parallel to the modern fence.
The light infantry companies had immediately taken musket fire from an orchard, so they took cover in the sunken section of Street Road. This was at about 3:30. The 3rd Virginia Regiment under Col. Thomas Marshall, the father of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was posted in this orchard.
The British main body was now advancing, and by 4:00 they had reached the advanced guard at Street Road. Although most of the British deployed to the right (their Right) of the Birmingham Road, the 1st Light Infantry Bn. deployed to its left with the 2nd Bn. and other troops further left. The 1st Bn advanced through this rolling terrain from near the house on the left half of the picture to the fence line on the right and into Street Road parallel to the fence. The Light Infantry and the Grenadiers on the other side of Birmingham Road took artillery fire as they approached Street Road.
G) Street Road Crossed By British Left
This is the area where the advanced guard light infantrymen had taken cover, but now the British first line had reached here, so the units of the advanced guard rejoined their parent units. The British found that the American artillery did not fire when the Virginians were between them and the battery, and so the Light Infantry advanced accordingly and pushed the Virginians back to the Birmingham Meeting House. (Apparently, some of the light infantry companies advanced and some remained to the rear, perhaps following a doctrine of advancing in open order with close order supports.)
H) Birmingham Meeting House Cemetery Wall
Marshall's men now deployed behind this stone wall of the Quaker cemetery. With the Light Infantry taking casualties attacking the wall frontally, they decided on a different approach. A company crossed a hedge into the road, the bed of which is off the picture to the left, and advanced to just beneath the American artillery to the rear of the meetinghouse. Most of the Light Infantrymen, however, moved against the other flank.