The Americans complained that the Hessians were brutal and tricky fighters; but in reality they merely carried out the ideals of their German Fatherland which remained behind the rest of Europe in its ideals of what was fitting in war.

Being uncivilized, they could not be expected to follow the practice of civilized warfare.
When Washington returned to his headquarters in New York, he left the Congress in Philadelphia simmering over the question of Independence.
Almost simultaneously with Washington's return came the British fleet under Howe, which passed Sandy Hook and sailed up New York Harbor.

He brought an army of twenty-five thousand men.

Washington's force was nominally nineteen thousand men, but it was reduced to not more than ten thousand by the detachment of several thousand to guard Boston and of several thousand more to take part in the struggle in Canada, besides thirty-six hundred sick.

The Colonists clung as if by obsession to their project of capturing Quebec.