Two days after the Battle of Germantown, George Washington returned General William Howe’s lost terrier under a flag of truce. That strange courtesy frames this episode on October 4, 1777, when Washington followed the loss of Philadelphia with an ambitious four-column night attack on Howe’s camp at Germantown.

We trace how delays and thick fog wrecked the plan, how Henry Knox’s insistence on taking the Chew family’s stone mansion, Cliveden, stalled the attack, and how friendly fire between American units led to retreat. Then we explain why European observers saw more promise than failure in the attack, and how Germantown together with Saratoga helped win French support.

• The white paper in soldiers’ hats meant to prevent friendly fire
• General Howe scolding his light infantry seconds before American cannon opened fire
• Why textbook doctrine warned against leaving a fortified position behind an advancing army
• John Laurens’s attempt to burn Cliveden’s door and John Marshall’s wound
• Casualty totals, Adam Stephen’s court-martial, and the strategic value of daring to attack