One in an occasional series

George Washington and his men are itching for a fight.

The commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, who has heard grumbling from Congress after losing two major battles and the city of Philadelphia in three months, would like nothing better than one more dance with his British counterpart, Sir William Howe.

And Washington's soldiers would like nothing better than a chance to take out their frustrations on Howe's Redcoats.

It is the first week of December 1777. The Continental Army, encamped for the last month at Whitemarsh, 13 miles northwest of Philadelphia, is waiting for an attack that Washington's spies have assured him is coming.

Dug into heavily wooded hills, the Continental troops are in an ugly mood.

They are cold. They are hungry. They are tired. And they haven't been paid since late summer.

But they occupy fortified high ground, a circumstance that fosters feelings of invulnerability.

"We had a commanding position and were very sensible of it," Joseph Plumb Martin, the teenage soldier from Connecticut who has done a lot of fighting this fall, recalls years later.

"We were kept constantly on the alert, and wished nothing more than to have them engage us, being in excellent fighting trim, as we were starved and as cross and ill-natured as curs."

The night sky has convinced some American soldiers that a big battle is coming.

"While we lay there, there happened very remarkable northern lights," Martin remembers. "At one time the whole visible heavens appeared, for some time, as if covered with crimson velvet. Some of the soldiers prognosticated a bloody battle about to be fought, but time, which always speaks the truth, showed them to be false prophets."

A bloody battle is, indeed, what Sir William Howe has in mind, as he marches nearly his entire army - about 12,000 British and German troops - out of Philadelphia late on the bitterly cold night of Dec. 4, leaving only 3,000 troops behind.

Hoping for a decisive victory (or at least to push Washington's army back so British troops can safely venture outside the city on foraging expeditions), Howe means to make one last attack on the Continental Army before winter closes in.

Howe has had two strategic goals in 1777. He achieved one when his army occupied Philadelphia at the end of September. The other - destroying Washington's army - has eluded him, even though he defeated the Americans at the Brandywine in September and Germantown in October.

Both Howe and Washington are operating in the shadow of the devastating British defeat in October at Saratoga, N.Y.

Howe knows that he may be criticized for not doing more to assist Gen. John Burgoyne, the vanquished British commander, in Burgoyne's invasion of New York from Canada. Sir William has already offered his resignation to the ministry in London, complaining that the ministry has not given him enough manpower.

Washington, too, is watching his back. Some in Congress and the army have begun whispering about his leadership, particularly Gen. Thomas Conway, a French citizen of Irish birth serving in the Continental Army. Conway believes that Gen. Horatio Gates, the victor of Saratoga, should replace Washington as commander-in-chief.

While Washington is irked by the criticism, he hasn't let it affect his judgment. With his customary desire to see things for himself, the general has left the comfort of his headquarters in the house of the late Quaker merchant George Emlen to scout the British defenses of Philadelphia.

Washington finds the British fortifications, running from Kensington on the Delaware River to the Upper Ferry on the Schuylkill (near the site of the Philadelphia Museum of Art), "much stronger than I had reason to expect for the accounting I had received."

An attack on Philadelphia is out of the question.

How fortunate for Washington, then, that Howe has decided to come to him. So eager is Washington to entertain Howe that he pronounces himself on Dec. 1 "disappointed" that the British have not yet attacked.

Howe and his officers have done their best to keep the impending attack a secret, but the British preparations have not escaped the notice of sharp-eyed Philadelphians, who have passed on the information to Washington's spymasters.

After drawing six days' rations, the British march out of Philadelphia at midnight on Dec. 4.

When they show up just outside Chestnut Hill in the predawn hours of Dec. 5, the Americans - about 15,000 strong, including reinforcements from Gates' army - are awake and waiting for them.

Washington orders the Pennsylvania militia on his right flank forward "to skirmish with their Light, advanced parties." The fight is short and fierce; the militia commander, Gen. William Irvine, is captured, and the Pennsylvanians retreat.

The action opens three days of maneuvering, as Howe's troops move back and forth across the American front, keeping about a mile away, looking for an opening. Behind their lines, the Americans shadow the British feints, denying Howe any point of attack.

As Howe's soldiers march and countermarch, they take out their wrath on the civilian population, burning houses as they go.

Johann Ewald, a German officer serving with the British, describes the scene on the night of Dec. 6 as the army burns houses in the villages of Cresheim and Beggarstown (Mount Airy): "The sight was horrible. The night was very dark. The blazing flames spread about with all swiftness and the wind blew violently. The cries of human voices of the young and old, who had seen their belongings consumed by the flames without saving anything, put everyone in a melancholy."

Even American opponents of the Revolution are aghast. Robert Morton, a teenage Quaker from Philadelphia, writes in his diary that the soldiers "committed great outrages on the inhabitants... as if the sole purpose of the expedition was to destroy and to spread ruin and desolation, to dispose the inhabitants to rebellion by despoiling their property... . "

On Dec. 7, Howe makes one last effort to turn the American left flank by way of Abington and Edge Hill, a ridge that runs parallel to the American lines. Washington quickly counters with Daniel Morgan's rifle corps and Maryland militia. The Americans retreat after some sharp fighting, but the British also pull back.

Small-scale fights, known collectively as the Battle of Edge Hill, go on throughout the day in the thick woods, but no full-scale battle develops.

The next day, Howe - realizing he can neither outflank Washington nor draw him into the open - marches back to Philadelphia.

Washington is disappointed. "I sincerely wish, that they had made an Attack," he writes to Congress. "The Issue in all probability, from the disposition of our Troops and the strong situation of our Camp, would have been fortunate and happy."

The British are back in Philadelphia for the winter, too strong to be attacked.

The Continental Army will go into its own winter quarters in a few days at Valley Forge.

Next time: The hard winter begins.

Contact Michael D. Schaffer at 215-854-2537 or mschaffer@phillynews.com.