Howe, pursuing a strategy of posts, sought European style victory in a sudden taking of the enemy capital. Control of the fords of the Brandywine would be the key to his position and although a possible flank attack was discussed, it's likelihood was discounted on the strength of local information. Washington posted his troops advantageously and in depth. Once the armada set sail, however, Washington shifted southwest and took up a naturally strong defensive position, on high ground behind Brandywine Creek, astride the main road to Philadelphia.
General George Washington, holding interior lines at Morristown, New Jersey, was unsure whether Howe would move north in support of the British invasion from Canada (see Saratoga, 1777), or whether he would move south against the Capital. With some 14,000 troops, including crack German mercenaries and elite American Loyalist units, Howe's army was about to execute a flanking maneuver of "Jacksonian" proportions. Only short weeks earlier this army had disembarked at Head of Elk, Maryland, after a 32-day voyage from New York City aboard the largest armada North America has ever seen. They were marching through the extreme southeastern corner of Pennsylvania and heading toward fledgling America's capital at Philadelphia.
This was His Majesty's Royal Army, commanded by General Sir William Howe. Great Battles of the American Civil WarĪn early morning fog burned off with the dawn, and revealed two long columns of scarlet and blue clad troops.
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