GERMANTOWN, Battle of, 4 Oct. 1777. Howe having captured Philadelphia, stationed his army across the Germantown road north of the city and east of the Schuylkill; the left wing with its supports on the river, the right °in the to the cast. He shortly detached part of it to reduce the forts which blocked the Delaware below the city; and. Washington planned the capture of the weakened army, starting after dark on the evening of 3 October. His right under Sullivan and accompanied by himself, with six brigades, was to move down the main street and crush the British left; the Pennsylvania militia to march along the river and take it in flank; the left under Greene was to divide, three brigades under himself taking the British right in front and flank, while two others were to move to the east and come up in its rear, This would drive it back upon the left and both on the river, and it was hoped would compel surrender. A mile or so north of the British centre on Mount Airy were a battalion of light infantry and a battery; in a field just left was a regiment under Colonel Mus grave ; a little south on the main road was the massive stone house of former Chief Justice Chew. At sunrise a heavy fog came up and left all darker than ever. The British advance bodies were overwhelmed by the Americans, and the battery captured; but Musgrave took shelter in Chew's house, and after an unsuc cessful' attempt at breaching it with the light guns, the Americans left a brigade to besiege it and pushed on. Despite this delay and the warning to the British, both their wings soon began to give way before the American onset.
But in the fog, the heavy firing at Chew's house drew General Stephen with his brigade, on Greene's right, too far west, thinking the main fight was there; and Wayne on Sullivan's left had turned considerably east and came in front of Stephen, who took him for the enemy and attacked him in the rear. Wayne's men were driven against the next left of Sullivan's re maining brigades, a panic started and a general retreat began. The British took the offensive, and reinforced by Cornwallis from Philadel phia, pressed the Americans hard; but the lat ter soon regained composure and retired in good order, though one regiment of Greene's was surrounded and captured. The Americans, however, brought away several captured cannon, and all their own and their wounded. Their loss in killed and wounded was 673, the British 535. Stephen was accused of having drunk too much on the night march, court-martialed and dis missed from the army. Despite the failure of the plan, the ultimate results were very great. The audacity of the Americans in attacking the British so soon after the defeat of the Brandy wine, together with Gates's success at Sara toga, were large factors in determining the French alliance. Consult Carrington, 'Battery of the American Revolution) (New York 1878); Lossing, 'Field Book of the Revolu tion' (ib. 1859) • Jenkins, (Washington in Ger mantown) (ib. 1905).