General William Howe was the younger brother of Admiral Lord Richard Howe, and it is unique certainly in recent history that two brothers would lead an army and a navy in the same theater at the same time. General Howe shared his brother’s sympathy with the colonial cause, but like him, he could not conceive of colonial independence. He had fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill in Boston, and took over command of the British army in North America in 1776, the following year. After his victory and Washington’s strategic retreat at the Battle of Brooklyn, he chased the American army up Manhattan Island, around lower Westchester County, across the Hudson to Fort Lee, and eventually down to Valley Forge. After a number of significant defeats at the hands of the Americans, beginning with the surprise attack on Trenton, NJ on Christmas night 1776, he came under intense criticism in the British press and government and returned to England in 1778.

"Howe, William Howe, 5th Viscount." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007.