NY, USA
General Sir William Howe
1729–1814 · British Commander-in-Chief · Occupation Commander
1729–1814
British Commander-in-Chief · Occupation Commander
Sir William Howe came from a family with deep military and aristocratic roots in Britain, and he had compiled a distinguished record of service before the American war, including leading the assault on the French positions at Quebec in 1759 that helped win North America for the Crown. He was appointed commander of British forces in America in 1775 and assumed overall command after the Battle of Bunker Hill — a costly British tactical victory that Howe personally led and that impressed on him the terrible price of frontal assaults on entrenched American defenders. That lesson, combined with his genuine sympathy for the American position, shaped the way he conducted the war in ways his critics found excessively cautious.
The New York campaign of 1776 represented Howe at his operational best. Arriving with an enormous force of regulars and Hessian mercenaries supported by his brother Admiral Richard Howe's fleet, he executed a series of amphibious landings and flanking movements that repeatedly caught Washington's army out of position. The Battle of Long Island on August 27 was a tactical masterpiece that came close to destroying the Continental Army altogether. The subsequent advances through Manhattan — the landings at Kip's Bay and Throgs Neck, the action at White Plains — demonstrated a consistent ability to maneuver around American defensive positions. By November 1776 Howe had captured New York, driven Washington across New Jersey, and seized Fort Washington along with nearly three thousand prisoners.
Yet the critique that has followed Howe's reputation is the persistent question of why, having maneuvered Washington into dire straits repeatedly, he did not press the advantage to the point of destruction. His failure to pursue aggressively after Long Island, his deliberate pace through New Jersey that allowed Washington to slip across the Delaware, and his subsequent decision to winter his army comfortably in New York rather than finish off the Continental cause — these choices gave Washington the time and space to recover. Howe returned to England in 1778, submitted a defense of his conduct to Parliament, and spent the rest of his long life under the shadow of the question his critics never stopped asking: whether he could have ended the Revolution in 1776.
In New York City
- Aug 1776Battle of Long Island(British Commander-in-Chief)
The Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776, was the largest engagement of the Revolutionary War. General Howe landed approximately 20,000 troops on the western end of Long Island and executed a flanking march through the unguarded Jamaica Pass that rolled up the American left. Washington's army of roughly 10,000, many of them inexperienced militia, was driven back to Brooklyn Heights with heavy losses. The disaster was compounded by a two-day rainstorm that made evacuation difficult. On the night of August 29-30, Washington organized a desperate retreat across the East River to Manhattan, using every available boat. The entire army crossed in a single night, with a fortuitous morning fog covering the final boats. The army was saved, but the defeat made clear that New York could not be held.
- Sep 1776Execution of Nathan Hale(British Commander-in-Chief)
Captain Nathan Hale, a young Connecticut schoolteacher serving in the Continental Army, was captured behind British lines in New York while on an intelligence mission. He was brought before General Howe and hanged as a spy on September 22, 1776, without trial. Hale's reported last words — "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country" — became one of the Revolution's most famous quotations, though the exact phrasing is disputed. Hale was twenty-one years old. His execution, and the dignity with which he reportedly faced it, made him a patriot martyr and a symbol of the sacrifices demanded by the cause of independence.