been highly praised,1 but the lack of co-ordination between Knyphausen's appearance and that of Cornwallis was the main reason for the incompleteness of the victory.

Brandywine was followed by a move to the left which perplexed Washington greatly2 and resulted in the British crossing the Schuylkill near Valley Forge on 22 September, whereupon Washington, not prepared to risk destruction for Philadelphia, retired into the hills farther north, leaving the British to occupy the town (26 September). Their immediate need was to re-open direct communications with the fleet by capturing the forts which covered the obstacles to the navigation of the Delaware. The next week saw this begun and the American flotilla driven off up river; but Washington, recently reinforced by 1500 men from the Hudson and 1000 from Virginia, ventured a night attack on Howe's main body at Germantown, now reduced by various detachments to about 8000 men. His plan, which involved the co-operation of four converging columns, was too elaborate for the training, discipline and organisation of his men; a thick fog, which developed soon after sunrise on 4 October, added complications, and finally Sullivan's column in the right centre overlapped the left centre column, which fired into it from behind. The British outposts offered a stubborn resistance, especially at a stone house just north of the village where six companies held up nearly 3000 Americans, and the delay they imposed allowed the main body to prepare its counter-stroke. This was delivered with complete success, the American right being routed, whereupon the left, which had gained some initial advantage, retired also, only just in time to evade pursuit by Cornwallis, who arrived from Philadelphia with reinforcements. Washington's venturesomeness had cost over 1000 men, including 450 prisoners, but his readiness to take the offensive again did something to cancel the effects of the defeat at Brandywine and made no small impression on Howe. There seems little substance, however, in Washington's complaint that the Americans had retreated at the moment of victory: had they stood their ground much longer, Howe might have been presented with his decisive battle. He had had 550 casualties-more, relatively to the forces engaged, than at Brandywine-but his troops had fully retained their ascendancy in battle.

After Germantown Howe resumed his operations for opening the Delaware. A Hessian attempt on Red Bank (22 October) was repulsed with heavy loss, but a fresh attack in which ships co-operated3 captured Mud Island (16 November), whereupon Cornwallis crossed the Delaware and cleared Red Bank. On this the Americans dismantled and burned their shipping and abandoned further opposition. Howe had established himself solidly in Pennsylvania, but he had soon to realise that Burgoyne's disaster had neutralised his own 1 Fortescue, m, 216. a Washington, Works, v, 69. 3 N.R.S. xx, 154.

THE EFFECTS OF SARATOGA

735 success. He had already written on 30 August1 that he must have more troops: in the previous year he had had enough because he had then no conquests to guard-a telling criticism of his own recent proceedings-but as things stood, he could not hope to conclude the war with his present force: on 23 October2 his demand became one for 10,000 additional men besides drafts. If operations were to be extended to the southern colonies, as Germain, trusting blindly as usual to over-confident Loyalist refugees, had already suggested,3 15,000 men would be needed besides garrisons for New York, Rhode Island and Philadelphia. He concluded by requesting his relief in view of the "little attention given to his recommendations". Germain, who received this letter early in December, replied (11 December) that no answer was possible till Howe's own campaign was finished and particulars of Burgoyne's fate had arrived, but that enough was already known to show the need for material alterations in the plan of campaign.

This necessity did not really arise out of the military situation in America. Saratoga had been but a negative success and might have been retrieved had the general situation remained unchanged. It had merely foiled Burgoyne's attempt to secure the Hudson line; it was not followed, or likely to be, by an attack on Canada or New York, and though Gates reinforced Washington with 4000 men, their arrival only emboldened him to advance to Whitemarsh, fourteen miles from Philadelphia; he did not venture another Germantown, nor could Howe draw him into fighting. Howe moved out to Whitemarsh (4 December), captured some advanced posts, repulsed a reconnaissance in force, sought for a weak spot to attack, and, finding none, withdrew to Philadelphia, letting Washington establish himself at Valley Forge in quarters far less comfortable than Howe's but which allowed him to restrict considerably the area from which the British could draw supplies and forage.

Outside America, however, Saratoga had decided the doubts of France and brought her into the war. This was hardly unexpected; as far back as 14 August Germain had warned Howe that France and Spain would probably be drawn in "if this rebellion continues much longer". North's ministry is therefore doubly culpable that when France signed the treaty acknowledging American independence (6 February 1778) the British Navy was found unready for war against its old enemy. Sandwich cannot plead absence of warning or escape the main responsibility for the administrative shortcomings which largely explain the British fleet's failure to repeat its successes of the Seven Years' War and to keep the ring as clear for the army's operations overseas as when Anson inspired the Admiralty. The abandonment of the strategy of Anson and Hawke was at the bottom of naval failures on the American coast and in the West Indies, but 1 C.O. V, 94. 3 Germain to Howe, 3 Sept. ibid.

2 Ibid.

the chaos in the dockyards and administrative services was mainly responsible for the Navy's inability to keep the French cooped up in their home ports.

Till 1778 the Navy's part, though essential, had been secondary. After Lord Howe replaced Graves and a more adequate squadron was detailed for the work, the naval situation in America had improved appreciably. The privateers, though still troublesome, had been checked, and much damage inflicted on American commerce: one frigate alone, the Orpheus, captured thirty-three American privateers or merchantmen in two months between Rhode Island and the Bay of Fundy.1 The fleet had kept open the army's communications and had carried General Howe wherever he wished to go: if he had failed to reap full advantage of the mobility with which his troops were thus invested, Admiral Howe was blameless. Now the case was altered. Choiseul and Maurepas had made the French Navy of 1778 far more formidable than in the Seven Years' War.2 It was certainly imbued with dubious strategical and tactical doctrines, but, if its improvement must not be exaggerated, in training, administration and numbers it had never so nearly equalled the British, and it was in the happy position of having much less to guard, much more to attack. The Navy's ability to secure freedom of transit might at any moment be challenged by the appearance in American waters of a squadron equal or even superior to that on which the army's mobility depended.

The despatches clearly reflect the altered situation. On 30 November 1777 Howe emphasised3 the vital need for large reinforcements: to find an offensive corps for 1778 he must evacuate either New York or Philadelphia or Rhode Island, though he could preserve all three by remaining on the defensive if a substantial reinforcement could not be produced till 1779. There was more prospect of such a reinforcement as the news of Saratoga had roused patriotic feeling in England: ordinary recruiting had greatly improved, and new regiments were being raised by public subscription, Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow and several leading noblemen undertaking the task. North's ministry also resolved to attempt again reconciliation and appointed commissioners to proceed to America for that purpose, but Germain specially warned Clinton, who had been selected to replace Howe (February 1778), not to relax military precautions on that account. He held out hopes of large reinforcements, but the war was now to be prosecuted on different lines. After securing the places in his possession Clinton was to confine himself to systematic coastal attacks on New England, to be followed by 1 Rear-Admiral James's Journal, N.R.S. vi, 42 seqq. Lacour-Gayet, La Marine Militaire sous Louis XVI; Chevalier, Histoire de la Marine Française, bk 1. 3 C.O. V, 95.

4 George III's Letters (ed. Donne), II, 98 seqq.; Corresp. of George III, m, 511 seqq. and

IV, I-35.

THE INSTRUCTIONS TO CLINTON

737 operations against the southern colonies.1 A fortnight later Germain's tone was greatly changed; the French treaty had altered the situation, the recruits destined for North America must be diverted elsewhere and only three battalions could be spared from the United Kingdom. Offensive operations in North America must be abandoned and after providing 3000 men to defend Florida, Clinton was to despatch 5000 more to attack St Lucia, strategically about the most important of the French West Indies. These reductions would entail evacuating Philadelphia, and Clinton was to proceed forthwith to New York, there to "await the issue of the treaty which we have authorised our commissioners to propose". Should the negotiations fail Clinton was at liberty to evacuate New York for Rhode Island and to secure that post and Halifax, sending any surplus troops to Canada, where Haldimand was replacing Carleton.

3

These official "instructions" differ somewhat from Germain's private covering letter, which contemplates retaining New York as the base for coastal expeditions against New England, of which the instructions say nothing. The main upshot, however, is clear. Clinton was thrown back on the defensive, and any serious offensive would be directed against the French West Indies, indispensable to them as bases for carrying on the naval war. Since the King would not hear of frankly admitting American independence, even to concentrate against France, there was no better alternative. Provided that Sandwich's administration enabled the Navy to maintain local maritime superiority by preventing the French fleets quitting their ports unobserved and unfought, Canada, Rhode Island and New York need not fear the unassisted efforts of the Americans. Moreover, coastal expeditions against New England, if inglorious, were more likely to prove effective than capturing cities for which the Americans would not risk a decisive battle. In their farms and shipping they were vulnerable, and in advocating the extension of operations to the south, because its resources and trade were the financial mainstay of the rebellion, Germain was using an argument to which the peculiar circumstances lent some support.1

It was a severe winter; indeed the hardships endured at Valley Forge have become proverbial and Washington did wonders in keeping any army together. Howe has been severely criticised for leaving his enemy unmolested.5 Had he known the plight to which Washington was reduced, he might well have risked an attack. Wellington's mid-winter pounce upon Ciudad Rodrigo in 1812 was accomplished despite very similar difficulties, but Howe lacked Wellington's readiness to run big risks for a big prize and fell far 1 Germain to Clinton, 8 March 1777, C.O. v, 95; George III's Letters (ed. Donne), II, 148. * Germain to Clinton, 21 March, ibid.

Stopford-Sackville MSS, п, 132.

Hist. MSS Comm., Castle Howard MSS, p. 393; Amherst's letter in Corresp. of George III, IV, 249.

CHBE I

Ibid. IV, 345.

47

short of him as an organiser, while the practical difficulties of supply and transport involved in moving out in winter to Valley Forge and provisioning and sheltering the troops during the reduction of a naturally strong and well-entrenched position must not be overlooked. His inactivity would be easier to defend had he taken the field directly the weather permitted. But his failure to do this1 and his notorious neglect of discipline suggest that he merely let things slide. Clinton, who relieved Howe on 11 May, was hardly the man to redeem the situation. Not without capacity, though a better critic than leader, he was querulous, lacked decision and never inspired confidence in officers or men. The immediate problem, complicated by the presence, as at Boston, of many Loyalists who could not be abandoned to their fellow-countrymen's tender mercies, was the evacuation of Philadelphia. Howe's inaction had allowed Washington, admirably assisted by a competent German officer, Steuben, to make great strides towards disciplining and improving his army, and with the spring its numbers also had increased enormously. But Washington had adhered rigidly to the defensive, though minor activities, mainly collisions between parties who were collecting supplies or raids on outposts and depôts, had been frequent. He was likely to be offered a chance of taking his enemy at a disadvantage, as Clinton had decided to return to New York by land and would be encumbered by a great accumulation of baggage, "in which", he wrote, "I was vulnerable". The fleet was "so much dispersed upon other necessary services" that Lord Howe could not say when an escort could be collected, and anyhow there were not enough transports for all the troops and the Loyalists. Moreover, if winds were unfavourable, the move by sea might take many weeks, and with the British main body immobilised while in transit, New York, which was none too strongly held, would be exposed to Washington. Whereas the march across the Jerseys should not take over ten days and would meanwhile protect New York.1

Clinton, having embarked the Loyalists and all the stores he could, left Philadelphia on 18 June, and advanced steadily despite occasional opposition, making for Amboy. At Allen's Town he learned that Washington was over the Delaware and moving towards him while Gates would probably dispute the passage of the Raritan. Clinton accordingly swerved aside towards Sandy Hook, sending Knyphausen ahead with four brigades to escort his twelve miles of baggage. After allowing Knyphausen a good start Clinton had just reached Monmouth Court House when the American advanced guard under Lee appeared and opened artillery fire (27 June). Clinton promptly faced about and attacked vigorously, quickly driving Lee's men in some 1 Corresp. of George III, IV, 352.

2 Stuart, passim; Biddulph, "Letters 1779-1783", Am. H.R. XXIX; Corresp. of George III, IV, 367. 3 Castle Howard MSS, p. 380. Clinton to Germain, 23 May and 5 June, C.O. v, 96; Castle Howard MSS, pp. 379-83.