21, 1774, a Committee of Observation was formally established by Allentown-area patriot militias. Following the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Colonial British government in Allentown began dissolving and these patriot militias ceased control, pressuring Tories out of the region. Washington and his Continental Army staff passed through Allentown following their victory at the Battle of Trenton, traveling up Lehigh Street, which was then called Water Street. Washington and his staff stopped at the foot of Lehigh Street at a large spring on what today is the property occupied by Wire Mill. They rested there, watered their horses, and then proceeded to their post of duty. Allentown supported the Revolution, establishing the first hospitals for treatment of wounded Continental Army troops at various city locations, including at the current location of the Farr Building at 739 Hamilton Street. Washington and his commanders also chose to establish two POW camps in Allentown, one at 8th and Hamilton Streets and another on Gordon Street, to house Hessian mercenaries captured at the Battle of Trenton. In addition to visiting Allentown after his victory at the Battle of Trenton, Washington returned to the city and region several additional times during and following the Revolution. Allentown also played a historical role in protecting the Liberty Bell from British capture following the September 26, 1777 fall of Philadelphia to the British Army, concealing the Liberty Bell for nine months from September 1777 to June 1778 under floor boards in Allentown's Zion Reformed Church. After Washington and the Continental Army's defeat at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia was left defenseless and Pennsylvania's Supreme Executive Council, anticipating Philadelphia's fall, ordered that eleven Philadelphia bells, including the Liberty Bell (then known as the State House Bell), be taken down and moved to present day Allentown (then called Northampton Towne). Once arriving in Allentown, the Liberty Bell and other bells were hidden under floor boards at Zion Reformed Church on West Hamilton Street to protect them from being seized and melted down by the British Army for use as munitions. In 1962, inside this still-standing church at 622 West Hamilton Street in Allentown, the Liberty Bell Museum was opened to commemorate this successful concealment of the Liberty Bell in Allentown during the American Revolution. American Civil War The region again proved influential in the American Civil War. Following the Union Army's