In January, 1778, France acknowledged the independence of the United States of America and entered into treaty with them.  In the spring Sir William Howe resigned, and Sir Henry Clinton succeeded him in command.  After wintering in Philadelphia, the British commander discovered that he could do nothing with his troops shut up in a luxurious city, while Washington was watching him in a strongly intrenched position a few miles distant, and with constantly increasing forces now trained to war; and moreover, a French fleet with reinforcements was now looked for.  So he evacuated the Quaker City on the 18th of June, 1778, and began his march to New York, followed by Washington with an army now equal to his own.  On the 28th of June Cornwallis was encamped near Monmouth, N.J., where was fought the most brilliant battle of the war, which Washington nearly lost, nevertheless, by the disobedience of Lee, his second in command, at a critical moment.  Boiling with rage, the commander-in-chief rode up to Lee and demanded why he had disobeyed orders.  Then, it is said, with a tremendous oath he sent the marplot to the rear, and Lee’s military career ignominiously ended.  Four years after, this military adventurer, who had given so much trouble, died in a mean tavern in Philadelphia, disgraced, unpitied, and forlorn.

The battle of Monmouth did not prevent the orderly retreat of the British to New York, when Washington resumed his old post at White Plains, east of the Hudson in Westchester County, whence he had some hopes of moving on New York, with the aid of the French fleet under the Count d’Estaing.  But the big French ships could not cross the bar, so the fleet sailed for Newport with a view of recapturing that town and repossessing Rhode Island.  Washington sent Greene and La Fayette thither with reinforcements for Sullivan, who was in command.  The enterprise failed from an unexpected storm in November, which compelled the French admiral to sail to Boston to refit, after which he proceeded to the West Indies.  It would appear that the French, thus far, sought to embarrass the English rather than to assist the Americans.  The only good that resulted from the appearance of D’Estaing at Newport was the withdrawal of the British troops to New York.

It is singular that the positions of the opposing armies were very much as they had been two years before.  The headquarters of Washington were at White Plains, on the Hudson, and those of Clinton at New York, commanding the harbor and the neighboring heights.  Neither army was strong enough for offensive operations with any reasonable hope of success, and the commanding generals seem to have acted on the maxim that “discretion is the better part of valor.”  Both armies had been strongly reinforced, and the opposing generals did little else than fortify their positions and watch each other.  A year passed in virtual inaction on both sides, except that the British carried on a series of devastating predatory raids in New England