Three Days in Hell: The 28th Infantry Division and the Battle of the Bulge

Capt. John S. Wright of the 628th Tank Destroyer Battalion painted this image depicting fierce fighting between his unit and German tanks during the Battle of the Bulge. The 628th was originally designated the 28th Infantry Division Provisional Antitank Battalion.
Pennsylvania Military Museum, PHMC

The 28th Infantry Division is the oldest continually serving division in the United States Army. It traces its roots to the Associators, a collection of volunteer militia groups first organized throughout Colonial America beginning in 1747. These units served Pennsylvania and the nation through the Revolutionary War, the early National period conflicts, and the Civil War. In 1879 Pennsylvania governor Henry Hoyt issued General Order Number 1, which formally established the National Guard of Pennsylvania, and named Maj. Gen. John Hartranft the first division commander. Officials chose the keystone as the Guard’s official symbol in August of that year. The Pennsylvania National Guard was federalized for service in 1898 for the Spanish–American War and in 1916 for the Mexican Border Campaign as the 7th Division.

When the United States entered World War I in 1917, the Guard returned to federal service and began training at Camp Hancock, Georgia, in August. They reorganized as the 28th Infantry Division in October and arrived in France in the spring of 1918. On July 15 they made a historic stand along the Marne River, east of Château-Thierry. There, after a savage artillery bombardment, the German army collided head-on with the main force of the 28th Division, resulting in bloody hand-to-hand combat. The division successfully repelled the German attack and earned the praise of Gen. John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force in Europe, who declared the soldiers of the 28th “Men of Iron” and the unit his “Iron Division.”

The “Iron Men” of the 28th Division again mobilized for federal service in preparation for World War II on February 1, 1941. After years of stateside training, the first soldiers from the division landed on Omaha Beach on July 22, 1944, fought their way through Normandy, and participated in the liberation of Paris. In August, the division marched at the head of the parade celebrating that city’s freedom. By September, 28th Division soldiers breached the imposing West Wall of the German defenses and suffered months of devasting casualties during the battle of Hurtgen Forest, the war’s longest continuous battle.

Battered and exhausted, the 28th moved in late November 1944 to the Ardennes region, a densely forested highland with deep river valleys and relatively few roads where the borders of Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany intersect. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower hoped to use this region as a rest area for the combat-weary troops of the First Army, which included the 28th. Their respite, however, was short-lived as the region would soon become the home of the last major German offensive campaign of the war.

The ensuing battle would test the division’s strength and resilience as they fought desperately through the first three days of the Battle of the Bulge to hold the Ardennes in the face of an overwhelming enemy onslaught. Despite the odds, soldiers of the 28th defended the region with tenacity, delaying Germany’s advance and allowing time for reinforcements to arrive and halt the drive to Antwerp.

Hoping to turn the tide of the war in Germany’s favor, Adolf Hitler ordered a massive counteroffensive on the Western Front. Planning for the operation began in mid-September 1944. The situation for Hitler’s Third Reich appeared far from favorable for the launch of such an attack. The Axis coalition was in shambles; Fascist Italy had been defeated, Japan urged Germany to begin peace negotiations with the Soviets, and the once allied nations of Bulgaria, Romania and Finland had defected from Germany and joined the Soviets. On both fronts, Germany suffered staggering casualties of at least 1.2 million dead, wounded or missing. Losses in equipment were exacerbated by severe economic difficulties wrought by the desertion of former allies on which Germany depended for raw materials. In the West, British troops had entered Holland, and American forces reached the German city of Aachen. Allied air attacks significantly damaged German production facilities, and consumption of war materiel outpaced production.

Despite these factors, Hitler believed Germany possessed the willingness and resources to facilitate a large-scale counteroffensive. To increase the flow of manpower to the German war machine, Hitler ordered the closure of schools, theaters and small shops throughout Germany, increased the work week to 60 hours, pressed men as young as 16 and as old as 60 into service, and pulled draftees from the navy and air forces into the army.

Soldiers from the 28th Division march down the Champs-Élysées in Paris at the head of the parade celebrating the city’s liberation from German occupation on August 29, 1944.
National Archives and Records Administration

By early December, Hitler and his generals finalized plans for a counteroffensive code named Wacht Am Rhein, or “Watch on the Rhine.” The plan sought to divide the British and American forces occupying the Ardennes and take the port city of Antwerp, enabling Germany to encircle both armies and force a peace treaty in Europe.

To achieve his objectives, Hitler called for a blitzkrieg-style attack: Germany would surprise unsuspecting Allied forces using a fast-paced combined force of infantry and armored troops supported by artillery to attack through the 28th Division’s thinly held line on the first day, capture Bastogne by nightfall of the second day, secure crossings over the Meuse River on day three, and seize Antwerp by the end of day four. Because speed and surprise were paramount, the offensive required German forces to bypass defended areas they could not easily overwhelm or destroy. Hitler entrusted oversight of the ambitious plan to Commander in Chief (West) Gerd Von Rundstedt and gave him half a million men and thousands more tanks and artillery pieces with which to carry out the attack.

Under cover of darkness and low-level aircraft flights to mask the noise of thousands of tanks, trucks and artillery pieces, German forces assembled along the east bank of the Our River in early December. In the north, the 6th SS Panzer Army’s four divisions commanded by SS Gen. Josef Dietrich had orders to push through Monschau, Malmedy and Werbomont; cross the Meuse; and head north to Antwerp. Directly south of the 6th SS Panzer, Gen. Hasso von Manteuffel’s 5th Panzer Army’s four panzer divisions and four infantry divisions, supported by heavy artillery batteries, prepared to cross the Our River and quickly seize or bypass towns held by the 28th Division, including Heinerscheid, Marnach, Hosingen and Weiler, with the objective of overrunning the strategically important crossroads at Bastogne before turning north to cross the Meuse River and enter Antwerp from the west. To the south of Manteuffel’s forces, Gen. Erich Von Brandenburg assembled the 7th Army’s eight infantry divisions. Brandenburg’s forces were charged with crossing the Our River and capturing Vianden, Diekirch and Ettelbruck before turning west to protect Germany’s flank from any American counterattacks.

On the western side of the Our River, the 28th Division’s three infantry regiments and supporting elements — the 112th, the 110th (apart from its 2nd Battalion, which was held in reserve at Division Headquarters in Wiltz) and the 109th — were stationed north to south along a 25-mile corridor. To span the distance, commanding officers were forced to place men in company-sized strongholds near strategically significant towns rather than construct a continuous defensive line.

In the north, the 112th under the command of Col. Gustin Nelson held a 6.5-mile-long sector including the German towns of Lutzkampen, Harspelt, Sevenig and Ouren. At the southernmost end of the line, Lt. Col. James Earl Rudder and the 109th Infantry covered a 10-mile-long sector with strong points in Walsdorf, Fouhren, Longsdorf, Hoesdorf and Reisdorf. At the center, Col. Hurley Fuller’s two battalions of the 110th held 13 miles of territory including Marnach, Hosingen, Holtzhum and Weiler.

Infantrymen of the 28th Division who had been separated from their units after the initial German attack regrouped in Bastogne, the target of the German 5th Army by the second day of battle. Fierce resistance from the 110th Infantry Regiment prevented them from reaching the town on time.
Pennsylvania Military Museum, PHMC

Soldiers of 28th along the line celebrated Thanksgiving with civilians in the towns where they were stationed. Their duties consisted of recuperating, training replacements, and conducting patrols along the Our and returning to town in the evening.

By early December, reports from concerned civilians about the growing number of German personnel in the area began trickling in. Soldiers on patrol also encountered groups of German soldiers moving about the area. While on observation duty near Fouhren, PFC Amos Meyers of the 109th Infantry heard “engines running and noisy equipment moving about, but all was hidden behind the hills.”

Pennsylvania native PFC Leroy Schaller had enlisted in 1941 and went to Europe in 1943. During a reconnaissance patrol along the Our River, he and four other soldiers in Company B, 110th Infantry, observed a German combat patrol headed toward Marnach, where they were stationed. At Lutzkampen, soldiers from Company B, 112th Infantry, captured and interrogated a group of German soldiers who divulged that they were indeed preparing for an attack.

Despite clear evidence of a German buildup in the area, and the fact that the 28th Division was responsible for defending three times the amount of ground an American infantry division typically covered, officials at high headquarters were largely unconcerned; the division had been sent there to rest, and they were confident Germany lacked the resources to mount a large-scale attack, even in a region as thinly defended as the Ardennes.

In the foggy early morning hours of December 16, Germany commenced Wacht am Rhein with a fierce artillery barrage that lasted upwards of an hour, plunging the region into chaos. Following the initial barrage, massed waves of German infantry attacked the American front line in some sectors while in other areas, strong combat patrols probed the line.

Fighting was heaviest in sectors occupied by the 2nd Battalion, 109th Infantry; the 1st Battalion and 3rd Battalion, 110th Infantry; and the 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry. In the 109th Infantry sector, the 1st Battalion repelled strong attacks near Longsdorf. The 2nd Battalion of the 109th lost contact with Company E, which had been surrounded in Fuhren.

Heavy fighting was also taking place near Brandenburg. Throughout the day, the 3rd Battalion held firm, despite having repulsed several German attacks. To the north, German attacks in the 1st Battalion of the 112th Infantry sector penetrated as far as the battalion’s rear supporting areas.

Lt. Col. Daniel B. Strickler entered the Pennsylvania National Guard in 1916. For his heroism during the Battle of the Bulge, he was awarded the Silver Star. He later achieved the rank of major general, briefly served as commander of the 28th Division, and was elected Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania in 1947.
Pennsylvania State Archives, MG-356

Near Lutzkampen, Pvt. Charles Haug 1st Battalion, Company B, was situated in a hillside foxhole overlooking the town. From there, he and his fellow soldiers fought off the first wave of German attacks. That evening, the enemy began firing flamethrowers into the Americans’ foxholes. Haug recalled “it terrified our guys, and many of them jumped up from their holes and ran back over the hill and into the woods in back of us. . . . It was a sight that would hang heavy on any Americans heart.”

At the center of the 28th Division front, heavy artillery fire and repeated waves of infantry and armored attacks that severed communication lines battered the 110th Infantry’s 1st Battalion. Col. Hurley Fuller, at regimental headquarters in Clervaux, had to rely on radios and messengers to stay in touch with his battalions.

In Marnach, where Leroy Schaller had observed a German combat patrol during the overnight hours, the 47th Panzer Corps hammered the town with mortars and small arms fire. Observing enemy forces bearing down on the town from the third-floor window of a house, Schaller noted he “could select from more than one hundred open targets.” Soon, German soldiers overran Marnach, cutting it off from the rest of the battalion.

Colonel Fuller sent Lt. Col. Daniel Strickler, executive officer of the 110th, to Division Headquarters at Wiltz to inform Gen. Norman Cota of their situation. Strickler, a career officer from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who had served in World War I, arrived to find Wiltz also in chaos; because communication lines had been severed, Cota had no idea of the severity of the German attack.

In his memoirs, Strickler recalled Cota’s ominous words to him as he prepared to leave Wiltz: “Strick, we don’t know how big this thing is or what the enemy objective is, but my orders are to hold at all costs.”

From Wiltz, Strickler went to the command post of the 110th Infantry’s 3rd Battalion in Consthum, which was also under attack. There, commanding officer Maj. Harold Milton reported to Strickler that “the Krauts are hauling men right up to within yards of our position and we are slaughtering them as fast as we can.”

In Walhausen, GIs fiercely defended the village from attack by two German regiments. By noon, they had nearly run out of ammunition and could not be resupplied, nor could they expect reinforcements. At 6:30, the American platoon lieutenant called for artillery fire on his own position. The ensuing barrage killed 100 Germans and all but one American.

When night fell on December 16, the 28th Division’s thinly held line was holding, but barely. Fierce fighting across the sectors had wrought high casualties for both the American and German forces. In the 112th Infantry sector, 6th Panzer Army units failed to take the Our River bridges by the end of the day.

In the south, the German 7th Army had surrounded two companies of the 109th but gained no ground. At the center, in the 13-mile sector held by the 110th Infantry, the 110th had slowed the 5th Panzer Army long enough to prevent them from achieving their objective of smashing through the sector and making for Bastogne on the first day, but the two battalions had been battered; several towns were either now under German control or on the brink of being overrun, and regimental headquarters in Clervaux was at the center of the enemy’s crosshairs.

Lt. Col. James Rosborough, commanding officer of the 107th Field Artillery Battalion, led an assault, armed with a submachine gun, on a superior German force that resulted in 150 Germans killed and 40 taken prisoner, earning him the Distinguished Service Cross, the U.S. Army’s second highest award for valor, on December 17, 1944.
Pennsylvania Military Museum, PHMC

For the next two days, the 109th Infantry and its associated elements endured heavy German artillery fire and repulsed repeated infantry and armored attacks. Infiltrations of Battery A, 107th Field Artillery, and Battery C, 108th Field Artillery, were repelled by the batteries’ howitzers aided by two tanks and a platoon of infantry. For his actions in leading those counterattacks, commanding officer Lt. Col. James Rosborough, a Philadelphian who had served in the 28th Division since World War II, received the Distinguished Service Cross, one of 16 awarded to the 28th during the war.

On December 18, 3rd Battalion soldiers tried again in vain to reach Company E in Fuhren. Finally, the unit’s intelligence and reconnaissance platoon made it within observation distance of the village to discover no evidence of friendly troops alive; Company E was presumed lost. During the night, the 109th withdrew to high ground near Diekirch.

By Monday, December 18, the 109th Infantry was struggling to hold off soldiers of the 352nd Volksgrenadier Division and 5th Parachute Division east of Diekirch. The remnants of Companies E and F were on the verge of being wiped out near Walsdorf.

In the north, the 112th Infantry was again under heavy fire near Lutzkampen as Germans again attempted to reach the river crossings at Ouren, forcing Private Haug and his remaining comrades to abandon their positions and run “until we were so tired we couldn’t hardly breathe.”

That evening, the 112th destroyed the river bridges and withdrew to a new defensive line at Weiswampach. There, the regiment endured repeated enemy attacks as the Germans sought to push through the village, which had been their objective on the first day of battle. Though the regiment had suffered high casualties, they delayed German forces crossing the river and accessing a northern route to Bastogne. From Weiswampach, the 112th conducted a fighting retreat to Huldange. Separated from the rest of the 28th Division and unable to communicate effectively with division headquarters, the regiment attached to the 106th Infantry Division and went north to assist in the defense of St. Vith.

At the center of the 28th Division line, the 110th Infantry Regiment and its associated artillery units were hanging by a thread, as the greatest concentration of enemy forces continued to attack their position. After a long night hiding in a hayloft in Marnach and listening to German soldiers move in and out below him, Private Schaller was captured and endured a long march to Stalag IX-B prison camp in Hesse, Germany.

In the 3rd Battalion’s sector, German forces surrounded and overtook Holtzhum; the few remaining soldiers of Company L fled to the battalion command post at Consthum. There, Company M gathered all personnel, including cooks, clerks and drivers, to aid in the town’s defense. Constant artillery fire hammered Consthum, and Strickler recalled, “It was a literal hell during the night of the 17th.”

The 110th Infantry had been shattered by German troops from the 116th and 2nd Panzer divisions as well as the Panzer Lehr and 26th Volksgrenadier divisions. Regimental headquarters at Clervaux fell, forcing Colonel Fuller and his remaining staff to flee, only to be captured.

Germany now controlled most of the villages once held by the 110th, including Holtzhum, Weiler, Munshausen and Marnach; the surviving Americans that had not been taken prisoner were now fragmented into small groups. The center of the 28th Division line had been blasted open, and German forces were now pouring through on a direct route to the crossroads at Bastogne. Only Hosingen and Consthum remained under division control.

At Consthum, the last obstacle between the Germans and 28th Division headquarters at Wiltz, Strickler and Milton were holding out with a small force of 110th soldiers. Strickler recalled the desperate situation there: “Knowing the strength of the enemy forces against us now, we could not be hopeful of holding out for very long. But we were determined to make them pay for every foot of ground we gave up, and hoped that other American units would come to our aid.”

Lt. Col. Thomas Hoban gathered soldiers from the 28th Division Band and Quartermaster Company to form a provisional battalion that stayed and fought Germans in Wiltz, Belgium, until their ammunition was exhausted.
Pennsylvania Military Museum, PHMC

As it became apparent they could no longer hold the town, Strickler contacted General Cota and received authorization to withdraw. As the soldiers at Consthum prepared for a withdrawal to Kautenbach, the remaining Americans at Hosingen had reached their end; surrounded and outnumbered they surrendered to German forces, but not before leaving more than 300 Germans dead. Of the resistance there, German General von Luttwitz recalled it was “altogether more stubborn than I had expected”.

The 28th Division headquarters at Wiltz still stood, but the enemy was inching closer. Seeking ammunition and information about how the rest of the division was faring, Strickler arrived from Kautenbach to find Cota preparing for an attack from three directions, as Wiltz stood at the crossroads of three roadways.

For the past day HQ commandant Lt. Col. Thomas Hoban, a native of Scranton, Pennsylvania, had been working to organize a provisional battalion comprised of rear echelon soldiers. Signalmen, cooks, drivers, medics, quartermasters and members of the division band were armed in defense of the town. Supported by artillery, these provisional forces spread out around the town’s perimeter to block the roads into Wiltz.

Recognizing the risk of capture if division headquarters remained in Wiltz, Cota placed Strickler in command and ordered the evacuation of important military materiel to Sibret. Staff, including MSgt Charles Hirschi, organized division records and invaluable equipment onto trucks bound for Sibret, ensuring sensitive information would not fall into the hands of the Germans if the town fell. Cota and the few rear-echelon troops who had not been pressed into combat departed Wiltz that evening, leaving Strickler and Hoban’s provisional battalion to hold Wiltz as long as possible.

Meanwhile, the famed 101st Airborne Division was on the move to the Ardennes. They, along with Combat Command B of the 10th Armored Division were converging on Bastogne to stem the flood of German forces streaming through the hole in the battered 28th Division’s line.

At Bastogne, 101st Airborne Division troops formed a perimeter on the roads outside of town bolstered by armor from Combat Command B, which arranged itself in an eastward-facing arc 5 miles outside of town.

101st Airborne Infantry Division soldiers on the road between Bastogne and Haufalige, Belgium, move up to stem the German drive. Delaying actions fought by soldiers of the 28th Division during the first three days of the Battle of the Bulge bought time for soldiers of the 101st to arrive and halt the German advance.
Pennsylvania Military Museum, PHMC

In Wiltz, Strickler and the remaining 28th Division forces were surrounded, outnumbered, and nearly out of ammunition. Having received word of the 101st’s arrival in Bastogne, Strickler considered his mission at Wiltz complete; they had held off the Germans as long as they could. From Wiltz,
Strickler and the remaining defenders infiltrated through enemy lines to Bastogne.

The Battle of the Bulge, as the Ardennes offensive came to be known because of the “bulge” in the line on maps caused by the German advance through the line held by Allied forces, raged on until January 25, 1945. Although Germany had succeeded in surprising Allied forces in the region, the dogged determination of the 28th Infantry Division throughout the first three days of the battle severely disrupted the German offensive’s timetable enabling reinforcements from the 101st Airborne Division and the 10th Armored Division to reach Bastogne and strengthen the line.

The largest, bloodiest battle of the war decimated the Luftwaffe, exhausted German reserves, and forced the Germans back to the Siegfried Line, marking an end to Germany’s advance across Europe. The 28th Infantry Division paid a high price for its efforts, suffering total losses of more than 4,000 men. The 110th Infantry Regiment losses were particularly great: 139 killed, 333 wounded, 846 captured, and 1,302 missing.

For its part in halting the German offensive, Pennsylvania’s “Iron Division” received little recognition. Though the 112th Infantry Regiment received a Distinguished Unit Citation, recommendations that the 110th Infantry Regiment receive a Distinguished Unit Citation were never approved, nor did the entire division receive recognition for their contributions. Today, the regiments that fought so hard throughout those December days are honored on the grounds of the Pennsylvania Military Museum where monuments herald the sacrifices they made.

Sidebar: Other Pennsylvanians at the Bulge

Donald J. Flack, 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion

Donald J. Flack served with Battery B, 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion. He and his fellow soldiers were captured on December 17, 1944, and massacred in a field near Malmedy, Belgium.
Pennsylvania Military Museum, PHMC

Private First Class Donald J. Flack of Bellefonte, Centre County, entered the Army in 1943 and deployed overseas in August 1944. On December 17, 1944, Flack and his fellow servicemen in Battery B, 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion, were traveling in a convoy southeast of Malmedy, Belgium, when their convoy was spotted by Kampfgruppe-Peiper, a battalion of German Waffen SS soldiers commanded by Lt. Col. Jochen Peiper.

The Germans fired on the convoy. Outnumbered and outgunned, Flack and his unit abandoned the convoy and surrendered. The SS marched the men of Battery B to a nearby field and fired on them with machine guns and pistols. Any Americans left alive were shot in the head, though several managed to escape.

The massacre of 80 soldiers, including Flack, that day was one of a series of war crimes committed by Kampfgruppe-Peiper Waffen SS between mid-December 1944 and mid-January 1945. The bodies remained in the field where they were slain until American war crimes investigators collected evidence and removed them in January 1945. In total, the SS regiment murdered 362 American prisoners of war and 111 Belgian civilians.

Peiper and 74 other SS soldiers were placed on trial in 1946 at the former Dachau Concentration Camp for their crimes. There, seven survivors of the Malmedy massacre testified regarding the horrors they endured. Though 46 SS soldiers received death sentences, controversy surrounding the circumstances of their imprisonment, interrogation and trial prevented those sentences from being carried out. By 1951, all but one of the convicted men were commuted. Peiper was released from prison in 1956.

A memorial now stands near the site of the massacre, honoring the men who died there. Flack was buried in Belgium and then reinterred near his home in Bellefonte.

Sidebar: Other Pennsylvanians at the Bulge

Michael Chwastiak, 101st Airborne Division

Michael Chwastiak served with the 101st Airborne Division and was among those who relieved the embattled 28th Division during the Battle of the Bulge.
Pennsylvania Military Museum, PHMC

Michael Chwastiak of Frackville, Schuylkill County, enlisted in the Army in 1943. After basic training, he was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division and trained at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He earned his Parachutist Badge and embarked for England in September 1943. There, he and the rest of the 101st trained in preparation for the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Chwastiak was wounded right after his jump and spent a month in an English hospital.

He returned to his unit in England, where they were preparing for future airborne operations. On September 17, 1944, the 101st jumped into Holland during Operation Market Garden and spent 72 days in combat participating in the liberation of Holland.

Chwastiak and the 101st were at rest in France when they were again mobilized in December 1944 to assist in the Battle of the Bulge, where they relieved embattled soldiers of the 28th Infantry Division who had struggled to hold the line at Bastogne and other towns in the Ardennes region since December 16.

Chwastiak fought with the 101st Airborne through Alsace and the Ruhr Valley into Germany, where they captured Hitler’s mountain retreat at Berchtesgarden. He returned to the United States and was discharged on November 19, 1945.

For his service, Chwastiak received the Purple Heart, European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three bronze stars, the World War II Victory Medal, and a Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon.

Michael Chwastiak died in 2008 at the age of 84 and is buried in Macungie, Lehigh County.

Further Reading

Currey, Cecil B. Follow Me and Die: The Destruction of an American Division in World War II. New York: Stein and Day, 1984. / Forsman, John Edward. Survival in Stalag IV-B: The Memoirs of a 28th Infantry Division Bandsman as a P.O.W. Self-published, 1991. / Haug, Charles. Defeat As I Remember It. Self-published, no date. / Kuhn, J.J. I Was Baker 2: Memoirs of a World War II Platoon Sergeant. West Bend, IN: DeRaimo, 1994. / McManus, John C. Alamo in the Ardennes: The Untold Story of the American Soldiers Who Made the Defense of Bastogne Possible. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2007. / Phillips, Robert F. To Save Bastogne. New York, Henry Holt & Co., 1983. / Strickler, Daniel B. The Memoirs of Lieutenant Governor, Lieutenant General Daniel Bursk Strickler. Lancaster, PA: Self-published, 1972. / Weaver, Michael E. Guard Wars: The 28th Infantry Division in World War II. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. 2010.

Jennifer Eaton is the curator at the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg. Her previous articles for Pennsylvania Heritage are “Hastening the Deliverance of Her Country: Esther DeBerdt Reed and the Ladies Association of Philadelphia” (Spring 2024), “Elizabeth Drinker and the Quaker Exile” (Spring 2023), and “Two Faces of Molly Pitcher” (Spring 2022).