When the armies were separated by a storm which involved him in the
most distressing circumstances, he extricated himself from them, and
still maintained a respectable and imposing countenance.

The only advantage he is supposed to have given was at the battle of
Brandywine, and that was produced by the contrariety and uncertainty of
the intelligence received. A general must be governed by his
intelligence, and must regulate his measures by his information. It is
his duty to obtain correct information, and among the most valuable
traits of a military character is the skill to select those means which
will obtain it. Yet the best-selected means are not always successful;
and, in a new army, where military talent has not been well tried by
the standard of experience, the general is peculiarly exposed to the
chance of employing not the best instruments. In a country, too, which
is covered with wood precise information of the numbers composing
different columns is to be gained with difficulty.

Taking into view the whole series of operations, from the landing of
Howe at the Head of Elk to his entering Philadelphia, the superior
generalship of Washington is clearly manifest. Howe, with his numerous
and well-appointed army, performed a certain amount of routine work and
finally gained the immediate object which he had in view--the
possession of Philadelphia--when, by every military rule, he should
have gone up the Hudson to cooperate with Burgoyne. Washington, with
his army, composed almost entirely of raw recruits and militia, kept
his adversary out of Philadelphia a month, still menaced him with an
imposing front in his new position, and subsequently held him in check
there while Gates was defeating and capturing Burgoyne.

We shall see, in the ensuing chapter, that although Howe had attained