8Y/O OTTB Mare 16HH.

The town of Paoli grew around an inn kept in 1769 by Joshua Evans, whose father bought 500 acres (200 ha) from William Penn in 1719 near the current site of the Paoli Post Office. Evans named his inn after General Pasquale Paoli, a Corsican, after he had received the 45th and final toast at a Saint Patrick's Day celebration. [ citation needed ] The inn's location on the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike, about 20 miles (one day's drive for a horse-drawn wagon) from Philadelphia, ensured its success. On the evening of September 20, 1777, near Paoli, General Charles Grey and nearly 5,000 British soldiers launched a surprise attack, having intercepted General Washington's orders to General Wayne regarding British rearguard action, on the small regiment of Patriot troops commanded by General Anthony Wayne in an area near his home, (danger regarding a general being too familiar with the terrain), what becomes known as the Paoli Massacre. Not wanting to lose the element of surprise, Grey ordered his troops to remove the flint from their muskets and to use only bayonets or swords to attack the sleeping Americans under the cover of darkness.