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 Battle of the Brandywine on September 11, 1777, marked the apparent end of a long period of frustration for the British in North America. For Lieutenant-General Sir William Howe, commander of the British forces in North America, it was the first chance he had to come fully to grips with General George Washington's army since the British victory of Long Island in August 1776. That battle resulted in the loss of New York City to the United States for the remainder of the war. Since then, however, the only serious engagements between the armies had been the inconclusive affair at White Plains, N.Y. in October 1776, and the Battles of Trenton and Princeton, N.J. in December 1776 and January 1777, when Washington inflicted minor but stinging defeats on Howe's forces.

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.