Philadelphia campaign

Battle context

The Philadelphia campaign of 1777–1778 was a British effort to seize Philadelphia, the Revolutionary-era capital where the Second Continental Congress had convened, formed the Continental Army, appointed George Washington as its commander, and adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Control of the city carried both practical and symbolic weight: Philadelphia was the institutional center of the American war effort, and its capture was intended to strike at the legitimacy and administrative coherence of the rebellion. The campaign represented one of the principal British strategic initiatives of the war, pitting forces under Sir William Howe and his senior commanders against Washington's Continental Army and associated forces. The contest over Philadelphia shaped the broader arc of the middle-theater struggle during a critical period of the conflict.