The effective rank and file were only five thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight.
Had this army been composed of the best disciplined troops, its inferiority, in point of numbers, must have limited its operations to defensive war; and have rendered it incompetent to the protection of any place, whose defence would require a battle in the open field.

But more than half the troops[58] were unacquainted with the first rudiments of military duty, and had never looked an enemy in the face.
As an additional cause of apprehension, a large proportion of the soldiers, especially from the middle states, were foreigners, many of them servants, in whose attachment to the American cause full confidence could not be placed.
[Footnote 58: The extreme severity of the service, aided perhaps by the state of the hospitals, had carried to the grave more than two-thirds of the soldiers who had served the preceding campaign, and been engaged for more than one year.] General Washington, anticipating a movement by land towards Philadelphia, had taken the precaution to give orders for assembling on the western bank of the Delaware, an army of militia, strengthened by a few continental troops, the command of which was given to General Arnold, who was then in Philadelphia, employed in the settlement of his accounts.
The first and real object of the campaign, on the part of General Howe, was the acquisition of Philadelphia.

He intended to march through Jersey; and, after securing the submission of that state, to cross the Delaware on a portable bridge constructed in the winter for the purpose, and proceed by land to that city.

If, in the execution of this plan, the Americans could be brought to a general action on equal ground, the advantages of the royal army must insure a victory.

But should Washington decline an engagement, and be again pressed over the Delaware, the object would be as certainly obtained.
Had Sir William Howe taken the field before the continental troops were assembled, this plan might probably have been executed without any serious obstruction; but the tents and camp equipage expected from Europe did not arrive until General Washington had collected his forces, and taken possession of the strong post on the heights of Middlebrook.