Battle of Matson's Ford

On December eleventh, seventeen seventy-seven, George Washington's army was marching for Valley Forge when a British foraging column appeared on the Schuylkill River. Pennsylvania militia had already crossed to the west bank when the redcoats drove them back. Continental troops on the wagons they had lashed together as a makeshift bridge retreated in haste and destroyed the crossing behind them, stranding the British on the west bank overnight.

The action delayed Washington's march, forcing the army north to Swede's Ford to cross the Schuylkill before it finally reached Valley Forge. The skirmish was small, but it was one of the last things that happened to the Continental Army before the famous winter encampment began.