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20

Sep

1817

Paoli Battlefield Memorial Erected

Paoli, PA· day date

The Story

Local citizens erected a memorial at the Paoli battlefield on the fortieth anniversary of the attack — one of the earliest permanent Revolutionary War memorials in the United States. The monument, a stone marker over the mass grave, formalized a tradition of local remembrance that had continued unbroken since 1777.

The memorial's creation reflected the early nineteenth-century interest in commemorating the Revolution before its participants died. It also demonstrated how the Paoli narrative had been preserved in local memory — the site had been maintained by the community for four decades before any formal monument was built. The Paoli Battlefield remains one of the best-preserved Revolutionary War sites in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Sources for Paoli

General Charles Grey's Orders and Report on the Paoli Night Attack
UK National Archives, War Office Papers
Paoli Battlefield Preservation Fund: Archaeological Survey Report
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Pennsylvania Archives, Series 1, Vol. 5: Anthony Wayne Papers
Pennsylvania State Archives
Proceedings of a General Court Martial for the Trial of Major General Anthony Wayne
Continental Army Judge Advocate General
The Philadelphia Campaign, Vol. 1: Brandywine and the Fall of Philadelphia
Stackpole Books (Thomas McGuire)
Anthony Wayne: Soldier of the Early Republic
Indiana University Press (Paul David Nelson)
Journal of Captain John André, 1777
Tarrytown Historical Society (Henry Dawson, ed.)
Paoli Battlefield Preservation Fund