It might well have succeeded.

Washington with eleven thousand men aimed at a surprise.

On the evening of the 3d of October he set out from his camp.
Four roads led into Germantown and all these the Americans used.
At sunrise on the fourth, just as the attack began, a fog arose to embarrass both sides.

Lying a little north of the village was the solid stone house of Chief Justice Chew, and it remains famous as the central point in the bitter fight of that day.

What brought final failure to the American attack was an accident of maneuvering.