The Tremendous Battle at Germantown

The tremendous battle at Germantown leading up to the Revolutionary War occurred on October 4th, 1777. Before this battle, William Howe, a British general, captured Philadelphia in September of 1777. This outraged General George Washington, causing him to create a complex plan to get Philadelphia back. William Howe and his men decided to camp out at the Chew Mansion in Germantown, Pennsylvania after their tremendous capture. Washington planned four different attacks on the Chew Mansion that would all occur at the same time a month after the capture took place. Above is an illustration of Washington’s original attack plan on the Chew Mansion.

The image shows the four attacks and their assigned leaders. In his attempt to reclaim Pennsylvania, George Washington lead the colonists and some Canadian Auxiliaries to the Chew Mansion, which was housing some British soldiers. He had an in-depth plan in mind where the colonists would split up into 4 columns and attack at different angles, “precisely at 5 o’clock with charged bayonets and without firing”. The 4 attacks were one on the right wing, one traveling down the main Philadelphia road and attacking the centre, and the other two attacking the remaining wings of the Chew Mansion. The British camp was poorly defended, having less troops than Washington, however, the colonists failed to use Washington’s complex plan due to the unfortunate weather. The fog was very heavy the day of the battle and it caused a lot of confusion for the approaching colonists. The British and Hesse-Kassel scared the Americans away, leaving twice as much damage to the colonists than they received. Many colonists died in this battle as the illustration above suggests. Many colonists were killed, even though they had about 2,000 more troops.

Above, the Chew Mansion is pictured as Washington and his crew fought the British on horses. The battle caused harm to both sides, even though the British defeated the colonists in the end. 152 colonists were killed in battle, 521 were wounded of some sort, and 438 were captured by the British out of 11,000 men. 71 British were killed in battle, 448 were wounded of some sort, and 14 men were claimed to be missing out of 9,000. The battle also left many Americans to question Washington as a leader because of the loss. However, even though the Americans were defeated, France decided to lend aid to the colonists after their impressive success at Saratoga and their ability to attack the British. The outcome may not have been expected, but it still massively impacted the Revolutionary War.