Cooches Bridge

On September 3, 1777, American light infantry and cavalry under General William Maxwell clashed here with the advance guard of British and Hessian troops under Generals Howe, Cornwallis, and Knyphausen — the only significant land battle of the Revolutionary War fought on Delaware soil, coming about a week before the larger Battle of Brandywine. Local tradition holds that this was the first battle in which the Stars and Stripes flew, though historians dispute the claim. During the fighting, legend says a British soldier was shot and decapitated; on foggy, moonless nights, people report seeing a headless British soldier walking the roads near the battlefield.