now advancing Burgoyne. The fear was
groundless. On July 23 the British fleet set sail from New York,
carrying between fifteen and eighteen thousand men. Not deceived by
the efforts to make him think that they aimed at Boston, but still
fearing that the sailing might be only a ruse and the Hudson the real
object after all, Washington moved cautiously to the Delaware, holding
himself ready to strike in either direction. On the 31st he heard that
the enemy were at the Capes. This seemed decisive; so he sent in
all directions for reinforcements, moved the main army rapidly to
Germantown, and prepared to defend Philadelphia. The next news was
that the fleet had put to sea again, and again messengers went north
to warn Putnam to prepare for the defense of the Hudson. Washington
himself was about to re-cross the Delaware, when tidings arrived that
the fleet had once more appeared at the Capes, and after a few more
days of doubt the ships came up the Chesapeake and anchored.

Washington thought the "route a strange one," but he knew now that he
was right in his belief that Howe aimed at Philadelphia. He therefore
gathered his forces and marched south to meet the enemy, passing
through the city in order to impress the disaffected and the timid
with the show of force. It was a motley array that followed him. There
was nothing uniform about the troops except their burnished arms and
the sprigs of evergreen in their hats. Nevertheless Lafayette, who had
just come among them, thought that they looked like good soldiers, and
the Tories woke up sharply to the fact that there was a large body of
men known as the American army, and that they had a certain obvious
fighting capacity visible in their appearance. Neither friends nor
enemies knew, however, as they stood on the Philadelphia sidewalks
and watched the troops go past, that the mere fact of that army's
existence was the greatest victory of skill and endurance which
the war could show, and that the question of success lay in its
continuance.

Leaving Philadelphia, Washington pushed on to the junction of the
Brandywine and Christiana Creek, and posted his men along the heights.
August 25, Howe landed at the Head of Elk, and Washington threw out
light parties to drive in cattle, carry off supplies, and annoy the
enemy. This was done, on the whole, satisfactorily, and after some
successful skirmishing on the part of the Americans, the two armies
on the 5th of September found thems