being reinforced by his brother, Admiral
Howe. The general had all but abandoned ne-
gotiating a peace settlement, but Richard pre-
vailed upon him to persevere. Furthermore,
having apprised himself of the rebel defenses,
and with the memory of Bunker Hill still
painfully fresh, Howe adopted a strategy
based on maneuver, not attack. The two broth-
ers then embarked on a controversial cam-
paign to evict the Americans from the New
York City region. Commencing on August 2,
1776, 30,000 British were landed on Long Is-
land, where they promptly outflanked and de-
feated Americans under Gen. Israel Putnam.
Washington had no choice but to withdraw to
New York City, but Howe’s army followed at a
discreet distance. Royal Navy units also re-
mained out of the Hudson River and did not
interfere. Washington was thus allowed to es-
cape intact, ostensibly to spare him the humil-
iation of a crushing defeat. This option was
clearly within Howe’s ability, but he chose to
apply military pressure only to secure peace
negotiations. Thus a pattern of tactical victory,
followed by dilatory pursuit, emerged.
By November the Americans had been
forced out of New York entirely, losing more
than 2,000 men and vast quantities of sup-
plies, but Howe never contested their with-
drawal. The onset of winter convinced him
that military operations should be suspended,
and his army was deployed in a number of ad-
vanced posts throughout New Jersey. Sud-
denly, on Christmas Eve, 1776, Washington’s
ragged forces struck back at Trenton and
Princeton, defeating the forces of Johann
Ralland Charles Cornwallis. By this swift,
brilliant stroke the Americans kept their tot-
tering revolution alive. Howe’s reluctance to
completely crush the rebel army—in the
hopes of promoting peaceful negotiations—fi-
nally backfired with devastating effect.
Despite this reversal, Howe was knighted
by George III for his recapture of New York
City, which remained in British hands until
the end of the war. The following spring, both
he and his brother conceived ambitious plans
for a complex amphibious assault against
Philadelphia, a commercial center and home
of the Continental Congress. This was part of
an overall offensive British strategy, which
also entailed a major invasion from Canada
into New York under General Burgoyne.
Howe would have done well to support this
effort wholeheartedly, but his orders from
Germain were discretionary, and he chose to
ignore them. On August 25, 1777, the British
disembarked at Elk River, Maryland, and
pushed inland. Washington attempted to
make a stand at Brandywine Creek on Sep-
tember 11, but Howe expertly outflanked him
again, inflicting a punishing defeat.
Philadelphia fell on September 26, and the
general easily repulsed Washington’s counter-
attack at Germantown on October 4. The
Howe brothers then spent several weeks
mopping up along the lower Delaware River,
which was successfully cleared at great cost
to the Americans. As impressive as this string
of victories was, it paled alongside the loss of
Burgoyne’s army at Saratoga in October. That
disaster was partially Howe’s fault, for he pur-
sued his own objectives instead of coordinat-
ing the war effort northward. But Lord Ger-
main, also guilty of issuing vague orders,
launched a political tirade against the Howe
brothers. Stung by what they considered to be
a governmental smear campaign, William and
Richard both tendered their resignations.
Howe then wintered in Philadelphia amid
much extravagance until May 25, 1778, when
he turned over command of the army to
Henry Clinton and returned to England. He
also dispatched Gen. James Grantin an at-
tempt to trap forces under the youthful Mar-
quis de Lafayette, but that attempt failed.
Whatever his failings as a strategist, “Sir Billy”
was an extremely popular officer with the
rank and file, and Maj. John Andrefeted him
with an infamously elaborate send-off party,
the Mischianza.
Once home, Howe demanded a parliamen-
tary investigation that was both heated and
inconclusive. Many former subordinates, in-
cluding Cornwallis and Gen. Charles Grey,
stepped forward to testify on his behalf. HeHOWE, WILLIAM