Landing on Long Island in August, Howe defeated Washington in the largest battle of the war in North America, but the Continental Army was able to regroup and make an orderly and covert retreat to Manhattan that night under a cover of darkness and fog.

Washington suffered a series of further defeats in Manhattan but prevailed in a skirmish at the Battle of Harlem Heights and eventually withdrew his troops successfully to White Plains, New York.

Washington, in a tremendous boost to American morale, launched a successful strike against the Trenton garrison on the morning of December 26, 1776, prompting Howe to withdraw his chain of outposts back to New Brunswick and the coast near New York.

During the following winter months and through the rest of the war, both sides skirmished frequently around New York City and New Jersey as the British sought forage and provisions.

[11] General Washington, with a smaller army of about 19,000 effective troops, lacked significant military intelligence on the British force and plans, and was uncertain exactly where in the New York area the Howes intended to strike.

General Howe then began to lay siege to the works, but Washington skillfully managed a nighttime retreat through his unguarded rear across the East River to the island of Manhattan.

On September 11, the Howe brothers met with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Edward Rutledge in the Staten Island Peace Conference.

[19] Washington, who had previously been ordered by the Continental Congress to hold New York City, was concerned that he might have escaped one trap for another, since the army was still vulnerable to being surrounded on Manhattan.

To keep his escape routes open to the north, he placed 5,000 troops in the city (which then only occupied the lower portion of Manhattan), and took the rest of the army to Harlem Heights.

[22] General Howe, after consolidating British positions around New York harbor, detached 6,000 men under the command of two of his more difficult subordinates, Henry Clinton, and Hugh, Earl Percy to take Newport, Rhode Island and its strategic port east across Long Island Sound (which they did without opposition on December 8),[23] while he sent General Lord Cornwallis to chase Washington's army through New Jersey.

When Lee strayed too far from his army on December 12, his exposed position was betrayed by Loyalists, and a British company led by Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton surrounded the inn where he was staying and took him prisoner.

[31] The failure of the Continental Army to hold New York also brought about a rise in Loyalist activity, as the city became a haven for refugee supporters of the Crown from elsewhere across the region.

[38] [Howe] shut his eyes, fought his battles, drank his bottle, had his little whore, advised with his counsellors, received his orders from North and Germain (one more absurd than the other).

With the campaign at an apparent conclusion for the season, the British established a chain of outposts in New Jersey stretching from Perth Amboy to Bordentown, and entered winter quarters.

They controlled New York harbor and much of New Jersey, and were in a good position to resume operations in the spring, with the rebel capital of Philadelphia in striking distance.

[40] Howe then sketched a campaign for the following year in a letter to Lord Germain: 10,000 men at Newport, 10,000 for an expedition to Albany (to meet an army descending from Quebec), 8,000 to cross New Jersey and threaten Philadelphia, and 5,000 to defend New York.

German commanders Carl von Donop and Johann Rall, whose brigades were at the end of the chain of outposts, were frequent targets of these raids, but their repeated warnings and requests for support from General James Grant were dismissed.

The plan was aided by the fortuitous presence of a militia company that drew Donop's entire 2,000-man force away from Bordentown to the south that resulted in a skirmish at Mount Holly on December 23.

[43] Washington and 2,400 men stealthily crossed the Delaware River and surprised Rall's outpost on the morning of December 26 in a street-to-street battle, killing or capturing nearly 1,000 Hessians.

[45] On January 3, Hugh Mercer, leading the American advance guard, encountered British soldiers from Princeton under the command of Charles Mawhood.

Lord Percy resigned his command after a series of disagreements with Howe came to a head over the ability of the Newport station to provide forage to the New York and New Jersey forces.

[49][50] The Americans suffered significant casualties and lost important supplies, but Washington managed to retain the core of his army and avoid a decisive confrontation that could have ended the war.

In a letter to the Hessian General Leopold Philip von Heister Germain wrote that "the officer who commanded [the forces at Trenton] and to whom this misfortune is to be attributed has lost his life by his rashness.

"[53] Heister in turn had to report the loss to his ruler, Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, with the news that not only had an entire brigade been lost, but sixteen regimental colors and six cannon as well.

The news reportedly enraged Frederick, who broadly suggested that Heister return home (which he did, turning over command of the Hessian forces to Wilhelm von Knyphausen).

The first was an ambitious plan to gain control of the Hudson River valley, whose central thrust was a move along Lake Champlain by the army from Quebec under General John Burgoyne.

[58] Major General Benedict Arnold and Daniel Morgan's riflemen all played a notable role in the defeat of Burgoyne, following which France entered the war.

[60][61] The Princeton Battlefield and Washington's Crossing are National Historic Landmarks, with state parks also preserving all or part of the locations where events of this campaign occurred in those areas.

[64] When the illustrious part that your Excellency has borne in this long and arduous contest becomes a matter of history, fame will gather your brightest laurels rather from the banks of the Delaware than from those of the Chesapeake.