Howe wrote home to England the glad news of victory.

Philadelphia would probably fall before spring and it looked as if the war was really over.
In this darkest hour Washington struck a blow which changed the whole situation.

We associate with him the thought of calm deliberation.
Now, however, was he to show his strongest quality as a general to be audacity.

At the Battle of the Marne, in 1914, the French General Foch sent the despatch: "My center is giving way; my right is retreating; the situation is excellent: I am attacking." Washington's position seemed as nearly hopeless and he, too, had need of some striking action.

A campaign marked by his own blundering and by the treachery of a trusted general had ended in seeming ruin.