Great Regulars: One grows very fond of the Quaker diarist

Elizabeth Drinker, both for the charm of her style and the vividness of her reportage. On Sept. 12, 1777, for example, she wrote that "the perticulars of the Battle [of the Brandywine], I have not attended to, the slain is said to be very numerous--hundreds of their muskets laying in the road, which those that made off have thrown down--I was a little fluttered this Afternoon by hearing a Drum stop at our house and a hard knocking succeed; it proved to be, men with orders for HD [her husband Henry] to appear or find a Substitute--there has been a meeting this Afternoon at the State-House, on what Account I know not."

from Frank Wilson: The Philadelphia Inquirer: Boudreau opens the door to old Philadelphia

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