I heard rumors of this via Aunt Bertie (Alberta Coan) but have never seen anything concrete until now. I recently found this entry from the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Lineage Books:
Effie J. Cowan Hedges was Effie Henry’s Aunt Effie, her mother Emma Cowan’s sister.
Effie Henry’s maternal grandfather was William Cowan (1815-1898) son of David WIlliam Cowan (1790-1845), grandson of William Cowan (1742-1814).
At age 35, the elder William was “one of General Anthony Wayne’s picked men at the Battle of Paoli. He was born in Chester County, PA.”
The Battle of Paoli, also called the Paoli Massacre, was a small but vicious battle fought at midnight on September 20-21, 1777. Although the battlefield is located in the present-day Borough of Malvern, it received the name due to its proximity to the Paoli Tavern, a well-known landmark in 1777.
After the Battle of the Clouds, the bulk of the American army moved to Reading Furnace to replenish their ammunition. General Washington left behind Brigadier General Anthony Wayne and a regiment of troops to either harass the rear of the main body of British troops.
The British were camped at Tredyffrin in preparation of crossing the Schuylkill River and attacking Philadelphia. Lord Howe, however, got word that Wayne was lurking in ambush. Howe changed his plans. He would instead try to ambush Wayne at his camp in Paoli.
Just after midnight on September 21, the British led by Lord Grey launched a devastating strike into Wayne’s unprepared American camp. Grey had ordered his men to remove the flints from their rifles before the attack began. Bayonets, — a weapon Americans considered barbaric — would be the weapon of choice.
53 Americans were killed and over 100 wounded in Grey’s lightning raid. The use of the bayonet coupled with the notion that the British stabbed or burned the Americans who tried to surrender, made martyrs of those maimed and killed at Paoli. For the rest of the war, the British lived in fear that Wayne’s troops would try to avenge the affair that came to be know as the Paoli Massacre.
William Cowan survived the battle and lived to age 72.
