On Sept. 26, 1777, the British occupied Philadelphia after defeating Washington’s army at Branywine and Paoli. Washington was itching for some payback and decided to roll the dice with the Battle of Trenton as his template. When he learned that Gen. William Howe had divided his army between Philadelphia and Germantown, he decided to attack. Germantown was 7 miles northeast of Philadelphia. Washington’s plan called for four columns to converge on the British. The several columns approach had worked at Trenton, but mainly from luck. Washington had a weakness in making overly complex plans that had a lot of moving parts. He ran out of luck at Germantown.
Washington divided his regulars between Gen. Nathanael Greene and Gen. John Sullivan. Their columns would make a frontal attack and militia would attack both British flanks. On Oct. 3, the army began its night march of 16 miles. The next morning at 5:30, Sullivan’s column encountered Howe’s picket line and drove it back. Sullivan pursued in a heavy fog. Around 120 Redcoats took refuge in a mansion called the Chew House. Sullivan wisely bypassed it, but when Washington and his staff reached the site, Gen. Henry Knox recollected his copious reading in military history to convince his boss that you should never leave an enemy fortification in your rear. Washington ordered forces be allotted to taking the house. Lt. Col. John Laurens was put in charge. He was already wounded and suffered another wound while leading an attack on the house. Lt. John Marshall, the future Supreme Court Chief Justice, was also wounded there. The American charges were decimated by fire from the windows. Knox’s cannons merely dented the walls. An attempt by Laurens to pile firewood at the front door and set the building ablaze failed. By siphoning off forces better used to sustain the offensive, the assaults on the Chew House might have deprived Washington of a victory.
Meanwhile, the early success of Sullivan could not be sustained. His men fired volleys into the fog which facilitated their forward momentum, but reduced their ammunition. They were forced to fall back. Greene’s column did not hit the British until around 6:30. It got into heavy fighting at the British camp. A British counterattack pushed Greene’s force back and the fog led to an unfortunate friendly fire incident between Greene’s and Sullivan’s men. The robust British response to the surprise and the confusion of the fog and the overly complicated plan caused Washington’s army to retreat. Howe followed for a few miles, but he called off the pursuit before destroying Washington’s army. He might have ended the Revolution on October 4, 1777, but once again Howe displayed the lack of a killer instinct. Ironically, the battle actually benefited the rebels because the French government was impressed with the perseverance of the Colonies. It proved that Saratoga was not a fluke.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Germantown
https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/battle-of-germantown
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