The Battle of Germantown
After the American defeat at Brandywine, George Washington was determined to win a battle. Major General William Howe had set up camp at Germantown, Pennsylvania, with Major General Lord Cornwallis not far behind in Philadelphia. Washington and his staff created a rather skillful and thorough plan that was challenging to carry out with an untrained army. The plan was this: to surround the British camp in a double envelopment, which is a military tactic, where the flanks of the opposing army are attacked simultaneously in a pinching motion. After the opposing army has moved forward, two more units move in to stop any attempts of reinforcements reaching the targeted unit. Unfortunately, this battle was doomed from the start. There was an extreme blanket of fog on the morning of October 4th, 1777, and gun smoke in the air did not make it any easier. The battle of Germantown was one that was ill-fated from the beginning and continued to be so until the end (Purcell 1) (Lancaster 1).
William Howe rejected General John Burgoyne’s offer to join forces with him in upstate New York, because his focus was on taking Philadelphia. Howe prevailed at the Battle of Brandywine, which led him to successfully take Philadelphia afterward. Due to this, it appeared that Howe was in control due to his constant wins. His main forces which contained around nine thousand men went into camp at Germantown, and Lord Cornwallis had three thousand more troops camping in Philadelphia (Axelrod 1) (Purcell 1).
Washington was not going to accept reprehensible defeat, so he had decided on a counterattack where Charles Cornwallis was residing with his troops – in Germantown. Though the American army had lost at Brandywine, it soon after g...
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...definite that Major General William Howe was in possession of Philadelphia, and George Washington had no choice but to leave and eventually go into winter quarters at Valley Forge. The Americans had lost 152 men, 521 were wounded, and more than 400 were captured. The British had lost 70 men and 450 were wounded (Axelrod 1) (Purcell 2).
Works Cited
Axelrod, Alan. "The Battle of Brandywine, the Fall of Philadelphia, and the Battle of Germantown." Eyewitness to America's Wars. Vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, 2011. N. pag. American History Online. Web. 9 Dec. 2013.
Lancaster, Bruce, J. H. Plumb, and Richard M. Ketchum. The American Heritage History of the American Revolution. New York: Bonanza, 1984. Print.
Purcell, L. Edward., and Sarah J. Purcell. "Battle of Germantown." Encyclopedia of Battles in North America, 1517 to 1916. New York: Facts On File, 2000. Print.
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Portland: Frank Cass & Company Limited, 1996. Middle Kauff, Robert. A.S.A. The Glorious Cause. The American Revolution, 1763-1789. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Gordon S. Wood. The Radicalism of the American Revolution. Vintage; Reprint edition. March 2, 1993
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... Bobrick, Benson. Fight for Freedom: The American Revolutionary War. New York: Atheneum, 2004. Print.
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"Battles of the Civil War". Civil War. 2013. Civil War Trust. Web. 9 Dec 2013.