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Revolutionary War was brought home to Pennsylvania with a vengeance
when, on September 26, 1777, a detachment of British troops under
Lord Charles Cornwallis occupied Philadelphia. This event climaxed
a month-long campaign during which 18,000 British and Hessian soldiers
under General William Howe had landed at the northern end of Chesapeake
Bay, defeated George Washington's forces at the Battle of Brandywine,
and evaded all subsequent American attempts to block their progress
toward the American capital. But Howe remained wary of the Americans,
who were camped only thirty miles northwest of Philadelphia along
Perkiomen Creek between Pennypacker's Mills and Trappe. Accordingly,
he put the bulk of his remaining force-some 9,000-10,000 troops-at
Germantown, five miles above Philadelphia, covering the likely
avenues of approach from Washington's position.
 Three
such routes converged a short distance south of Germantown. Running
close to the banks of the Schuylkill River was the Manatawny,
or Ridge Road. A mile or so to its east was the Germantown Road.
About the same distance still farther east was the Skippack Road,
which crossed the Bethlehem Pike (connecting at its southern
end with the Germantown Road) to intersect northeast of the village
with the Old York Road, leading thence to Philadelphia.
Germantown itself was a two-mile-long hamlet of stone houses
from Mount Airy, on the north, along the Germantown Road to an
intersection called Market Square. Extending southwest from the
Square was Schoolhouse Lane, running a mile and a half to the
point where Wissahickon Creek empties through a steep gorge into
the Schuylkill. To the east of Market Square, Church Lane stretched
another mile and a half to Lukens' Mill, where it converged with
Meeting House Lane and, as Limekiln Road, curved up to meet the
Skippack Road at a point some three miles to the north.
The hilly country, together with the heights along the Wissahickon
and the Schuylkill, provided
good defensive positions. Howe established his main line of resistance along
Schoolhouse-Church lanes. The western wing, under the Hessian General Wilhelm
Knyphausen, had a picket of two Jaeger battalions at its left flank on the
high ground above the mouth of the Wissahickon; extending northeastward to
Market Square were a Hessian brigade and two British brigades. East of Market
Square, under General James Grant, were two more British brigades, two squadrons
of dragoons, and the 1st Battalion of the Light Infantry regiment. Farther
to the east, covering the Old York Road approach, was a New York Tory unit,
the Queen's Rangers. On the Germantown Road at Mount Airy was an outpost consisting
of the 2nd Battalion of the Light Infantry, backed up half a mile to its rear
by the 40th Regiment of Foot (later designated the Queen's Lancashire Regiment),
under Colonel Thomas Musgrave. A detachment of the 1st Battalion of the Light
Infantry was posted as a picket near Lukens' Mill. As a reserve, two battalions
of the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards (the modern Grenadier Guards) were located
near the center of the main line, a little over a mile southeast of Market
Square.
On the Perkiomen, the ill-trained Americans were underfed and
poorly clothed; many were barefoot; and they had been defeated
and out-maneuvered. Nevertheless, their morale was good and they
were still full of fight. Accordingly, when Washington learned
that numerous detachments had weakened the enemy force at Germantown,
he was confident that he could attack it successfully.
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