ABSTRACT
Recruiting had been difficult on both sides of the Atlantic. The battle started on Long Island in the third week of August 1776. The three Americans reported afterwards that Howe had nothing to offer except pardon and perhaps some administrative reforms. The conference having failed, the Howes landed troops on Manhattan on September 15th, and overran most of it. In November, Howe, supposing with some reason that cold, lack of food and boots and general misery would paralyse the Americans for the next few months, fell back on Manhattan. By late December, Washington was over the Delaware River in Newton Pennsylvania, and Howe was confident that New Jersey had seen the last of him. Three-quarters of an hour after the Americans swooped down on it, the thing was over. There was a desperate battle at Princeton, in which Washington met the left wing of Cornwall's army and put it to flight.
