At the outset of the Revolutionary War, Howe was promoted to brigadier general and was heavily involved in actions in the Southern Department, commanding the Continental Army and Patriot militia forces in defeat in the First Battle of Savannah.

Political and personal confrontations, combined with Howe's reputation as a womanizer among those who disfavored him, eventually led to the Continental Congress stripping him of his command over the Southern Department.

[3] Howe's father was a member of the extended Moore family, formerly of South Carolina, who settled the lower Cape Fear River and collectively owned more than 80,000 acres (32,000 ha; 120 sq mi) of farmland on it by the 1730s.

[3] In 1765, Howe worked with other colonial leaders such as Hugh Waddell, Abner Nash, and Cornelius Harnett to found the Wilmington Sons of Liberty organization, which was active in protesting the Stamp Act 1765 that taxed most printed materials.

In 1766, he was commissioned as a captain of militia and was given command of Fort Johnston, located at the entrance of the Cape Fear River in present-day Southport, North Carolina.

[21] The Regulator movement was in part based on the grievances farmers in the North Carolina backcountry had about back taxes and pressure from private creditors, both of which Howe's 1768 bill had attempted to address.

[23] In early 1773, when Josiah Quincy II visited North Carolina to foster cooperation between Southern activists and those in Boston, he investigated the causes of the War of the Regulation to which he had been sympathetic.

"[25] More importantly, however, Quincy's visit with Howe, Hooper, and Harnett engendered a desire among those present to open up inter-colonial lines of communication in order to coordinate responses to future impositions by the British government.

[27] In particular, Martin believed that Howe was intentionally under-staffing Fort Johnston in order to pocket excess funds the colonial assembly had appropriated for the garrison there, which was a common form of embezzlement among previous commanders and other royal officials.

[38] After fleeing, Martin made a proclamation on August 8, 1775, that attributed the growing unrest in North Carolina to what he termed "'the basest and most scandalous Seditious and inflammatory falsehoods'" propagated by the Committee of Safety in Wilmington.

[39] Howe once again represented Brunswick County in the Third Provincial Congress in Hillsborough beginning on August 20, 1775, and was appointed to the committee charged with developing a test oath for members of the legislative body.

[42] Initially, Howe headquartered his command in New Bern during the fall of 1775 and was charged by the Provincial Congress with protecting the northern half of North Carolina up to the border with Virginia.

[16] Howe, as senior officer chosen over the more junior William Woodford of Virginia,[3] engaged in contentious negotiations over access to supplies with the captains of British ships anchored off Norfolk, which were by that time overcrowded with Loyalist refugees.

The situation deteriorated, and Norfolk was burned on January 1, 1776, in an action started by British marines and a bombardment by Royal Navy vessels and completed by Patriot forces.

Howe arrived first, as the presence of the British Army and Royal Navy under the command of General Henry Clinton at the mouth of the Cape Fear River delayed Moore's descent.

[51] Upon arriving in Charleston, Howe acted as an adjutant to Major General Charles Lee, who had been appointed Commander of the Southern Department of the Continental Army.

This controversy, like many in which Howe was involved, centered on the conflict between the Continental Army and state governments' desires to retain local control over their officers and soldiers.

[70] After allegations circulated in South Carolina about Howe's dalliances with a woman, the Continental Congress finally removed him from command of the Southern Department on September 25, 1778, replacing him with Major General Benjamin Lincoln.

Howe was charged with commanding the artillery barrage and infantry assault of that position, but was given too few field pieces, entrenching tools, provisions, and little ammunition to make a serious attempt at taking the fortification.

[80] Contemporaries such as General William Irvine criticized Howe as "having a talent ... of finding many supposed obstructions, and barely plausible pretences for his delay" in assaulting Verplanck's Point.

[82] While military action was infrequent in Howe's region of control, he was integral in the recruitment and cultivation of a substantial spy network which provided the Patriots with information about British positions on Manhattan and along the Long Island Sound.

The tribunal, which met at Howe's headquarters in Middletown, Connecticut, adjourned for several months due to a threatened British attack but reconvened in December 1779 and closed in January 1780.

[85] The court-martial rendered its decision on January 26, 1780, finding Arnold guilty of breaching the articles of war by permitting a vessel from an enemy port into Philadelphia and recommended that he be reprimanded by Washington.

Howe remained active in the upper Hudson River valley during the remainder of the war, particularly in overseeing his network of spies in the area, including double agent Joshua Hett Smith, who would later play a key role in Arnold's treason and prosecution.

Howe served on the court-martial board that convicted of espionage and sentenced to death Major John André, the British officer tasked with facilitating Arnold's conspiracy.

The tribunal, led by Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, opened on December 7, 1781, and closed on January 23, 1782,[90] acquitting Howe of any wrongdoing at Savannah with "the Highest Honor".

[78] After putting down the second Pennsylvania mutiny in 1783, Howe participated in the establishment of the Society of the Cincinnati and was the second officer to sign the national charter, with his signature appearing directly below that of von Steuben.

[94] During much of 1783 and 1784, Howe returned frequently to Philadelphia, New York, and other cities in the northeast in an attempt to settle accounts and obtain back payments he claimed he was owed by Congress.

[101] Howe has been remembered primarily in a negative light based on his lack of military successes and reputation, although North Carolina historian Hugh Rankin noted in a biographical sketch that "his opportunities came at times when he did not have proper field strength to gain favorable recognition.

[109] Later historians, including Douglas Southall Freeman, have frequently dismissed allegations that Howe attempted to defect, believing them to have been fabrications used by Joel to ingratiate himself with the Patriot government.