After the Continental defeat at the Battle of Brandywine (September 11, 1777) and the British occupation of Philadelphia (September 26, 1777), General George Washington sought to make up for the Continental army's setbacks and force General William Howe to retreat by launching a surprise attack at Germantown, Pennsylvania. Howe, on his part, may have been too confident because he did not entrench his position and had deployed his troops widely in Pennsylvania and New Jersey near Philadelphia. Washington, however, developed an overly complicated plan: He ordered four separate columns to march on the British position at night for a coordinated assault in the morning. With the best troops, such a maneuver would have been difficult, but with poorly trained Continentals and militia, it was courting disaster.

The first of Washington's men stumbled into British sentries about 4:00 a.m., easily pushing them back. However, it was unusually foggy that morning, and confusion began to reign on both sides. Washington's columns did not attack together, with one division even firing into another, and the militia never came up into position. At a crucial moment in the battle, the disciplined British shored up their line and brought in reinforcements. Confronted with this defense, running out of ammunition, and confused by the smoke and fog, some of Washington's soldiers began to withdraw. The panic spread, and soon the whole army was in retreat. The battle lasted under three hours. Each side had put about 8,000 men in the field: Howe lost about 500 men, Washington lost some 1,000 killed, wounded, and captured. Nonetheless, he was convinced that had they persisted just a little longer, his men would have been victorious.

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