On that day Howe had embarked eighteen thousand men and the fleet put to sea from Staten Island.
Howe was doing what able officers with him, such as Cornwallis, Grey, and the German Knyphausen, appear to have been unanimous in thinking he should not do.

He was misled not only by the desire to strike at the very center of the rebellion, but also by the assurance of the traitorous Lee that to take Philadelphia would be the effective signal to all the American Loyalists, the overwhelming majority of the people, as was believed, that sedition had failed.

A tender parent, the King, was ready to have the colonies back in their former relation and to give them secure guarantees of future liberty.

Any one who saw the fleet put out from New York Harbor must have been impressed with the might of Britain.

No less than two hundred and twenty-nine ships set their sails and covered the sea for miles.