Marking Pennsylvania History

The Horses that Saved America

September 1777: The British General Howe captures and occupies Philadelphia. American forces surrounded the city to the north, east and west. To mount an offence, Howe and his troops need food; gunpowder, weapons and other needed materials in 240 British ships laden with supplies are anchored in the Delaware Bay.

Between the British and their supplies is Fort Mifflin. Two hundred men assigned to the fort on Mud Island while Washington prepares to set up camp and winter quarters at Valley Forge.

October 1777: Americans obstruct the shipping channel in the Delaware River with sharp wooden spikes. These Cheveaux de fries, or (loosely translated) "frizzy horses." A British officer described these as "large timbers, like the main mast of a ship, at the top of which are three branches armed and pointed with iron, spreading out fanwise...fifteen feet asunder. The main beam is fixt at an elevation to the frame of a float or stage, composed of vast logs, bound together as fast as possible; then covered with plank to the top and calked. When the machine is towed to its place, it is loaded with about thirty tuns of stones, secured in cases which, by taking the plugs out of the deck to admit the water into the float, sinks it down and keeps it firm and steady.... A row of these cheveaux de frise are sunk sixty feet asunder from each other and another behind in their intervals, to form a range. "

November 1777: British war ships and batteries begin firing at Fort Mifflin. The barrage continued over several weeks. On the 10th, a massive attack from the ships on the Delaware River lasts until the 17th, when the work of clearing the shipping channels begins. While the British are delayed in Philadelphia, Washington sets up camp for the winter of 1777 at Valley Forge.

- Kenneth FInkel, Executive Director of WHYY's Arts & Culture Service

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