Conduct of Sir William Howe

Note: This e-book was prepared from a Reprint Edition 1971 by Arno Press Inc. LC# 71-140874 ISBN 0-405-01219-5
Eyewitness Accounts of the American Revolution, Series III ISBN for complete set: 0-405-01187-3 Manufactured in the United States of America
LONDON: Printed for J. BEW, Pater-noster Row.
M,DCC,LXXIX.
Tarrytown, N.Y. REPRINTED WILLIAM ABBATT 1927
F the four British commanders here during the Revolution, Howe was certainly the chief, so far as dullness amounting to apathy and slowness almost equal to immobility, went. His first experience of American determination was at Bunker's Hill; and he ever afterwards showed a wholesome respect for his opponents. On the particular event we are considering, his expedition northward from New York to White Plains in 1776, his ineptitude was so conspicuous that Israel Mauduit wrote this stinging pamphlet (now very rare) about it, in which Howe's various forms of inefficiency are so tersely and forcibly shown up. It was indeed fortunate for the patriots that a really active, energetic officer was not in command; for such a one as Simcoe or Maitland would have easily defeated them. Howe afterwards explained to Parliament his reasons for not following up his advantage at White Plains, by saying his inaction was due to political reasons, which he could not then disclose. The fact, as it afterwards came out, was that he had received—and accepted—the treasonable offers of William Demont, the first American traitor, regarding the post of Fort Washington. By a—for him—rapid return to New York, he was thus enabled to capture Fort Washington and two thousand men. His statements as to his losses at Pell's Point are clearly untrue, as shown by the detailed accounts given in my Battle of Pell's Point. Mauduit was probably unaware of the facts, or he would not have failed to include them in his pamphlet.
IR W——m H—e having called for papers for the satisfaction of the public, and thereby invited us to read and attend to them, I have been accidentally led to the perusal of one of them, and here offer what has occurred upon the occasion.