By 1777, there was no love lost between the Patriots and the Redcoats. The British had recently routed Washington’s army at Brandywine and had taken the city of Philadelphia. The commander of the Continental Army felt he needed to do something to stop his losing streak so he developed an intricate plan to defeat the British. He had succeeded at Trenton by dividing his army into several parts to attack the town and he hoped to repeat the success. However, lady luck was not with him on Oct. 4. The early morning attack did take the British by surprise, but from there the literal fog of war made it hard for Washington to coordinate his forces. He made a mistake in not bypassing the Chew House. This mansion defended by Redcoats held up his attackers and diluted his momentum. And then two of his units got confused in the fog and fired on each other. The British Gen. William Howe jumped out of bed and rode to take command of his army. His fox terrier Lila followed him into battle. The master and dog survived a blast of grapeshot. Then the dog turned traitor and ran into the American lines. Meanwhile, Howe got the situation under control and at the end of the day, the Americans retreated after one of the greatest “what-if” battles of the Revolution.
When the dog turned up at Washington’s headquarters after the battle, the collar identified him as Howe’s dog. Washington, a dog lover, decided to do the chivalrous thing and return the dog on Oct. 6 under a white flag with the following note (written by Alexander Hamilton):
“General Washington’s compliments to General Howe, does himself the pleasure to return [to] him a Dog, which accidentally fell into his hands, and by the inscription on the Collar appears to belong to General Howe.”
Was it really chivalry? Or was it shrewdness? One of his strengths was espionage. He ran a spy ring that brought in valuable intelligence. So, I wouldn’t have put it past him to use the dog’s return to have the returner do some scouting of the British camp in the process
https://www.americanheritage.com/case-generals-dog
https://americacomesalive.com/a-dog-on-the-battlefield-and-the-character-of-george-washington/
0 Comments