Sunday 19th. In company with Mr. Powell rode up to the white Marsh. Traversed my old Incampment, and contemplated on the dangers which threatned the American Army at that place. Dined at German town. Visited Mr. Blair McClenegan. Drank Tea at Mr. Peters’s and returned to Philadelphia in the evening.
white marsh: about 12 miles north and west of Philadelphia, the last camp of GW’s army (Nov.–Dec. 1777) before he moved his men to Valley Forge for the winter. See , 5: chap. 21. german town: the scene of a confused battle between the Continental Army and the British (3–4 Oct. 1777) a few miles north of Philadelphia on the east side of the Schuylkill River. Blair McClenachan, a Philadelphia merchant, had bought Cliveden, the Chew country home in Germantown, from Benjamin Chew in 1779, which is probably where GW is visiting this day. In the American attack on Germantown this house, stubbornly held by British troops, was the center of intense fighting and cannonading by GW’s troops.