ork, with 7000 men, telling
him to send a small force up the river to help Burgoyne, should there be
any need of it, which did not then seem likely. Then he put to sea with
his main force of 18,000 men, and went around to the Delaware river,
which he reached at the end of July, just as Burgoyne was reaching Fort
Edward.

[Sidenote: Howe's strange movement upon Philadelphia, by way of
Chesapeake bay.]

Howe's next move was very strange. He afterward said that he did not go
up the Delaware river, because he found that there were obstructions and
forts to be passed. But he might have gone up a little way and landed
his forces on the Delaware coast at a point where a single march would
have brought them to Elkton, at the head of Chesapeake bay, about fifty
miles southwest from Philadelphia. Instead of this, he put out to sea
again and sailed four hundred miles, to the mouth of Chesapeake bay and
up that bay to Elkton, where he landed his men on the 25th of August.
Why he took such a roundabout course cannot be understood, unless he may
have attached importance to Lee's advice that the presence of a British
squadron in Chesapeake bay would help to arouse the Tories in Maryland.
The British generals could not seem to make up their minds that America
was a hostile country. Small blame to them, brave fellows that they
were! They could not make war against America in such a fierce spirit as
that in which France would now make war against Germany if she could see
her way clear to do so. They were always counting on American sympathy,
and this was a will-o'-the-wisp that lured them to destruction.

On landing at Elkton, Howe received orders from London, telling him to
ascend the Hudson river and support Burgoyne, in any event. This order
had left London in May. It was well for the Americans that the telegraph
had not then been invented. Now it was the 25th of August; Burgoyne was
in imminent peril; and Howe was three hundred miles away from him!

[Sidenote: Battle of the Brandywine, Sept. 11, 1777.]

All these movements had been carefully watched by Washington; and as
Howe marched toward Philadelphia he found that general blocking the way
at the fords of the Brandywine creek. A battle ensued on the 11th of
September. It was a well-contested battle. With 11,000 men against
18,000, Washington could hardly have been expected to win a victory. He
was driven from the field, but not badly defeated. He kept his army well