Paoli Battlefield a step closer to becoming national historic landmark

Supporters of the Paoli Battlefield are a step closer to persuading Washington to designate the Main Line site - an encampment that swam in patriot blood on a September night in 1777 - a national historic landmark.

The research and documentation they submitted have put the 40-acre Chester County tract into contention for the nation's highest historic designation, according to the National Park Service's National Historic Landmark Program and the American Battlefield Protection Program.

If the campaign's success continues, the Revolutionary War battleground will join 2,500 locations nationwide, including 167 in Pennsylvania - among them, Washington's Headquarters at Valley Forge, Edgar Allan Poe's Philadelphia home, the Pearl S. Buck House in Bucks County, and the Brandywine Battlefield in Chester County - and 58 in New Jersey.

"This is a milestone for us," said Bruce Knapp, president of the nonprofit Paoli Battlefield Preservation Fund, which co-owns and manages the battlefield and helped save it from development in the 1990s. "We've gotten over that first hump, and now it's a matter of putting our best foot forward."

The volunteers must now prepare their submission for further scrutiny, first by a state review board, which will pass along its recommendation to the National Park Service. If the Paoli Battlefield's story is sufficiently compelling, the secretary of the interior could decide by next summer that it deserves national historic landmark status, Knapp said.

The designation would make the Paoli Battlefield eligible for grants and tax incentives for preservation and increase its drawing power among history-buff tourists.

The Battle of Paoli occurred in the overnight hours of Sept. 20 and 21, 1777. As George Washington moved on to replenish his army's ammunition and prevent the British from taking Philadelphia, he left about 2,100 American soldiers behind. Under the command of Brig. Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne, they were directed to keep watch on the British.

Catching the Americans by surprise, roughly 1,500 British troops attacked with bayonets, securing a gruesome victory. At least 53 Americans were killed and more than 150 wounded in the "Paoli Massacre," which took place in present-day Malvern.

From that battle came the rallying cry "Remember Paoli!" Through the rest of the Revolution, it was "as recognizable as 'Remember the Alamo' is now," Knapp said.

By designating Paoli a national historic landmark, the federal government would endorse its value to the country and its place in history, said Jeremy Barnum, a Park Service spokesman. Such sites must have meaning for all Americans regardless of where they live, and must speak to the broader story of the nation. For the communities where they are located, Barnum added, "it's a badge of honor."

The battlefield has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1997, thanks to the work of historians, government officials, and residents of the surrounding area. In the 1990s, the Paoli Battlefield Preservation Fund raised $2.6 million through grants, matching government funds, and community campaigns such as schoolchildren's "Pennies for Paoli" to buy the land from Malvern Preparatory School and save it from developers.

Historians working to prove the Paoli Battlefield's national significance this time around also have been researching the importance of the British campaign to take Philadelphia, which could bolster the case for the Paoli site.

mbond@philly.com

610-313-8207 @MichaelleBond