Paoli, Pennsylvania: Difference between revisions

The town of Paoli grew around an inn kept in 1769 by Joshua Evans, whose father bought {{convert|500|acre}} from [[William Penn]] in 1719 near the current site of the Paoli Post Office. Evans named his inn after General [[Pasquale Paoli]], a [[Corsica]]n, after he had received the 45th and final toast at a [[Saint Patrick's Day]] celebration.{{Citation needed|date = October 2015}} The inn's location on the main turnpike from Philadelphia to [[Lancaster, Pennsylvania|Lancaster]], about 20 miles (one day's drive for a horse-drawn wagon) from Philadelphia, ensured its success.

On the evening of September 20, 1777, near Paoli, Pennsylvania, General [[Charles Grey, 1st Earl Grey|Charles Grey]] and nearly 5,000 British soldiers launched a surprise attack on a small regiment of Patriot troops commanded by General [[Anthony Wayne]] in what becomes known as the Paoli Massacre. Not wanting to lose the element of surprise, Grey ordered his troops to empty their muskets and to use only bayonets or swords to attack the sleeping Americans under the cover of darkness.{{Citation needed|date = October 2015}}

With the help of a Loyalist spy who provided a secret password and led them to the camp, General Grey and the British launched the successful attack on the unsuspecting men of the Pennsylvania regiment, stabbing them to death as they slept. It was also alleged that the British soldiers took no prisoners during the attack, stabbing or setting fire to those who tried to surrender. Before it was over, nearly 200 Americans were killed or wounded. The Paoli Massacre became a rallying cry for the Americans against British atrocities for the rest of the Revolutionary War. The [[Battle of Paoli]] occurred in the town; the site of the battle is now part of nearby [[Malvern, Pennsylvania]].{{Citation needed|date = October 2015}}