Awagoner during the battle of brandy wine edward

Sir William Howe, commander of the British and German troops at the Battle of Brandywine (Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection)

The British commander spent the first part of the summer campaign of 1777 in New Jersey, trying to lure Washington into the open for another major engagement that would finally wipe out the main American army while Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's northern expedition severed New England from the rest of the colonies. Washington's stubborn refusal to risk a major engagement forced the British commander to find another means of forcing battle, and on July 8 he began embarking his 16,500 men on board his brother Admiral Richard Howe's armada at Sandy Hook, N.J.

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