When the British army first attacked New York, the troops numbered nearly 30,000.
However, as the New York campaign progressed, General Howe believed that he no longer needed so many troops to deal with Washington's few thousand remnants, so he divided his forces into several routes to attack Virginia and North Carolina.
In his view, even defeating those American farmers with no combat power was not a glorious matter, so he decided to divide his forces for a rapid attack to end this inglorious war as soon as possible.
Now that he had taken 10,000 troops from New York City, the remaining forces in the city were insufficient to support the British Cabinet's plan.
However, Cornwallis was a very far-sighted general, at least at this time, he was still very far-sighted.
After receiving this order, he did not hesitate to ask General Howe, the commander-in-chief, what to do.
Instead, he informed General Howe of the battle plan while preparing ships, deciding to lead a force of 3,000 men on warships to check the coasts of Philadelphia and Virginia, to see if they could gain an advantage during combat.
Because he inwardly guessed that with 10,000 British army troops going to Philadelphia, it would definitely be taken.
However, the American rebels would likely protect their leaders and retreat to Virginia and other places, and he planned to wait for an opportunity at sea, awaiting news from the Virginia Loyalists.
Once the target appeared, he would use the 3,000 elite British army soldiers on the warships to raid and capture the rebel leaders.
As for the so-called Continental army encircling Philadelphia, that would depend on the situation.
Cornwallis had his own plans, but General Howe on the other side was extremely troubled.
When his river crossing was harassed by troops sent by Washington, he immediately wanted to engage Washington in a decisive battle, but Washington retreated at the slightest touch, giving him no chance.
He was also an old general.
He knew that if Washington was not dealt with first, attacking Philadelphia would be very troublesome, and might even be impossible due to Washington's constant harassment from the rear.
So he tried to lure Washington into attacking him several times.
However, Washington, being astute, saw through all his attempts and did not fall for them, instead causing General Howe to exhaust his troops and waste a lot of time for nothing.
After marching all this way, he simply could not find an opportunity to engage Washington head-on.
Finally, out of helplessness, after one of Washington's harassments, he decisively dispatched a cavalry force of 800 men to pursue Washington all the way.
Coincidentally, Washington's 500 men were also mounted soldiers, and with this chase, they went far.
General Howe waited until the cavalry sent a messenger to inform him that Washington's troops had been driven out of Pennsylvania and were still being driven further north.
Only then did General Howe breathe a sigh of relief, confidently broke camp, and officially led his army to attack Philadelphia.
Without Washington's harassment, General Howe, having crossed the Delaware River, reached the outskirts of Philadelphia in a short time.
Under Charles' suggestion, several months of war preparations in Philadelphia were not in vain.
On all sides of Philadelphia's outskirts, several wooden and stone fortresses, arranged in a petal-like pattern, had been built.
This ensured that from any direction, the city had at least three fortresses that could provide alternating cover and attack.
Each fortress was originally designed to install three cannons, but due to a shortage of artillery, each actually only had one breech-loading cannon transported from Pittsburgh.
Each fortress also had 100 regular army soldiers with 400 militia stationed for defense.
As soon as General Howe's troops stopped, the Philadelphia army in the fortresses had already received the news and immediately notified the rear, putting the entire Philadelphia into a state of war.
However, General Howe saw that Philadelphia had already made arrangements outside, and knew that Philadelphia could not be taken in one fell swoop.
He simply set up camp and rested for a night.
The next morning, he did not order his soldiers to prepare for battle, but directly had the cannons brought up, ordering them to fire at the outer fortresses, preparing to bombard the fortresses first before attacking.
The breech-loading cannons on the fortresses were fortress-type breech-loading cannons specially made by the Coal and Steel Syndicate at Charles' request.
Their range was considerably longer than the field cannons carried by the British army, but their numbers were insufficient.
Before the British army's cannons had even advanced into firing range, the breech-loading cannons in the fortresses opened fire.
With a few "bang bang" shots, the British army's artillerymen suffered.
The rapid loading and continuous firing of the breech-loading cannons doubled their short-term power.
The British army lost one cannon and suffered about ten casualties, all of whom quickly retreated.
Some cannons were even remembered to be left behind after the men had run for a while, so they quickly turned back to retrieve them, only for the Continental army to destroy another one, ultimately leaving two cannons abandoned on the front line.
Charles, observing from behind Philadelphia, secretly felt it was a pity.
Too few breech-loading cannons could be transported from Pittsburgh.
If the number of cannons had been three times greater just now, it might have been possible to keep most of the British army's field cannons and artillerymen.
However, he was also very satisfied with General Sullivan, who was commanding at the front.
Three fortresses, three cannons, and four rounds of volley fire disabled two British army cannons.
Even for the powerful British army, this level must be all they could achieve.
The British army probably didn't bring many field cannons, and losing two at once would surely make General Howe jump with rage.
Charles guessed correctly, General Howe was indeed furious.
He hadn't brought many field cannons on this expedition, not because he lacked cannons, but because he lacked ships, and larger cannons could not cross the Delaware River.
That's why he only brought a few of the smallest caliber field cannons in the army.
He originally thought that with the invincible British army cannons, against the Continental army, which had virtually no artillery power, these fortresses would collapse after a few shots.
Who would have thought that the enemy was prepared, and it was his own field cannons that collapsed first.
General Howe, mortified, scanned continuously with his telescope.
Based on the cannon fire effect just now, the Continental army's cannons should not be many.
He immediately ordered Lieutenant Colonel Saint-Neje to lead 2,000 musketeers to launch a probing attack on one of the fortresses.
If the American farmers' combat power was insufficient, they would take it in one go and capture a fortress first; if their strength was good, they would fire three to five rounds, test their firepower and shooting level, and then retreat.
The main force in these fortresses was actually militia from various parts of America.
These people came to participate in the war with a surge of passion, and their bravery was naturally unquestionable, but the courage to stand calmly and shoot on the battlefield was not necessarily there.
Charles had them stay with the regular army, hiding in the fortresses to shoot, and the effect was much better.
Although each fortress had 500 men, whenever it was attacked, the two adjacent fortresses would provide artillery support.
When Lieutenant Colonel Saint-Neje's musketeers attacked, they did not advance in dense formations like in field battles, but in a scattered encirclement, a formation less susceptible to damage from rolling solid shot.
So even though a dozen people were killed or wounded during the advance, it did not shake the army's morale.
—
Soon the British army was about to enter effective range, and Lieutenant Colonel Saint-Neje had already gripped his saber, ready to shout "Stop."
Then, with a series of "bang bang" gunshots, dozens of British army soldiers fell, and dozens more screamed from minor injuries.
Although startled by the sudden attack, Lieutenant Colonel Saint-Neje was not a coward.
Having been on many battlefields, he quickly determined that these were the rifled muskets most favored by the American militia, whose range and accuracy were slightly better than smoothbore muskets, but whose firing speed was extremely slow.
Judging from the sound of the shots, which almost seemed to come in two waves, Lieutenant Colonel Saint-Neje was certain that the people in the fortress were mainly those American farmer militia, as only they would use such slow-firing sporting firearms.
It was just a little strange that this fortress, clearly only designed to hold a few hundred soldiers, felt like a thousand muskets were firing in this volley.
He did not care about this slightly strange feeling and continued to command his troops forward until they entered effective killing range, then he began to shout "Stop."
"Present arms!"
"Aim!"
"Fire!" "Fire!"
Both sides fired simultaneously.
This time, screams erupted from both sides, and there was even a considerable commotion within the fortress.
However, Lieutenant Colonel Saint-Neje's side was also not doing well.
The accuracy of rifles was much higher than that of smoothbore muskets.
When the militia first fired, they were relatively far away, and most of them were firing to kill for the first time, so their hit rate was inevitably low.
This time, in close-range firefight, the accuracy naturally improved significantly, and the lethality greatly increased.
Nearly a hundred British army soldiers fell, and many severely wounded lay on the ground screaming.
"This is definitely more than a few hundred people!"
He gave up managing his army's formation and focused all his attention on the Continental army within the fortress, and soon he saw the truth from the two parallel gun barrels.
These damned American farmers were actually using a double-barreled weapon!
Fortunately, the British army's quality was relatively high.
Despite heavy casualties, because the commander had not ordered a retreat, they immediately reloaded quickly and continued firing, and their firing speed was several times faster than the militia in the fortress.
They conducted three volleys before the fortress began its third wave of firing.
Witnessing the British army's strength, the commotion in the fortress grew even greater, and many ordinary militia who came to support even wanted to run out of the fortress to hide.
However, the actual killing effect of these three volleys was far less than it sounded, as the people in the fortress had places to hide.
Moreover, the British army's smoothbore muskets were not very accurate weapons, and only fewer than twenty people were actually killed by a single shot.
Most were wounded and screaming, but those painful screams terrified these militia, who had not experienced war, to the core.
If it weren't for the 100 regular Continental army troops suppressing them, they would have truly run out of the fortress.
When the slow-loading rifles were finally ready, the third volley began in unison, again causing nearly a hundred casualties, resulting in a 10% reduction in combat personnel.
The British army side could not bear it, and many soldiers began to squat and shoot.
Lieutenant Colonel Saint-Neje watched dozens more fall, his heart aching, but his saber in hand did not stop, "Prepare."
"Doo..." The whistle for retreat sounded from the rear.
General Howe, who had been watching through his telescope, saw that the situation at the front was not good and decided to withdraw the probing soldiers early, without waiting for the Continental army to finish five rounds of firing.
Lieutenant Colonel Saint-Neje quietly breathed a sigh of relief and orderly led his troops to retreat, precisely calculating the time.
Before the rifles were ready for their fourth volley, he allowed the British army to fire three more times as much as possible, then quickly withdrew with the lightly and severely wounded out of the fortress' range.
The first engagement between the two sides ended.
Later, the British army, under a white flag, collected the bodies in front of their position, and the Continental army did not obstruct them.
Although this battle was short, it caused a great shock to both warring parties.
Although Philadelphia repelled this British army attack, the final count showed 20 immediate deaths, 50 severely wounded withdrawn from the battlefield, and 30 lightly wounded with significantly reduced combat power.
A single defensive operation from within a fortress reduced one fortress' combat effectiveness by 20%.
The terrifying strength of the British army greatly shocked Charles and other commanders in Philadelphia.
The British army side was even more miserable.
This attack was originally just a probe, and General Howe had been observing through his telescope from the rear.
He was very annoyed that the Continental army would use a large number of militia riflemen.
This weapon, useless in frontal engagements, was surprisingly powerful in fortress defensive operations.
Just three short volleys caused the British army a loss of over a hundred immediate deaths, and including lightly and severely wounded, nearly 20% of the 2,000 men dispatched were casualties.
Although for the British army's large force of 10,000, such a few hundred casualties would not have any bad impact, having a regular army and a militia suffer similar casualties was something General Howe, as a British nobleman, could not accept under any circumstances.
"This is truly a disgrace to Great Britain! You actually lost to a bunch of farmers with sticks!" General Howe yelled, jumping in front of Lieutenant Colonel Saint-Neje.
"They only fired three rounds, yet their lethality was greater than your seven rounds! It's unimaginable, are you all made of wood!"
Such a battle outcome was far beyond General Howe's expectations, making him unable to even consider the underlying issues.
In fact, the militia in the fortress did not fire only three rounds, but six rounds.
However, double-barreled shotguns could fire two shots consecutively, making it easy for those in the rear who only heard the sound to mistake the two shots for one uneven shot.
And the long pause for reloading in between made General Howe, who was unaware of the truth, feel even more that such casualties were unfair.