Brandywine

The Battle of Brandywine, fought on September 11, 1777, was another ultimately meaningless British victory.  Two large armies--Howe's 13,000 British and Hessians against Washington's 11,000.  The British suffered 90 dead and approximately 450 wounded; the American dead have been estimated at 200, with 500 wounded and 400 captured. 

Remember Ho Chi Minh: "you will kill 10 of our men, and we will kill 1 of yours, and in the end it will be you who tire of it." This could have been said by Washington after this battle.  Christopher Ward, in his seminal The War of the Revolution, noted similar sentiments on the part of the Americans: "though they had been as badly beaten as any army could be without being entirely destroyed, there had been no panic; there was no suggestion of despair." Some have suggested that the Americans took their close defeat as further evidence of their ability to stand up and inflict pain upon the British.  Washington wrote the "troops were in good spirits." 

Here we see Chadd's Ford and the Brandywine River, the site of significant artillery action.