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How Did General Washington's Movement Change

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All assignments depended upon British movements. General Washington preferred waiting for the enemy to move first. He called for one War Council after another. We never saw so many officers going to Moore House or to the Potts House as we saw go in late May and early June. Twelve generals came and went daily to the Moore House. Information regarding the British changed constantly.

At the very beginning of June we saw groups of soldiers move out of the encampment, headed toward New Jersey. British General Clinton planned to send a part of his army to the Caribbean to protect British sugar plantations from encroachment by the French. He planned to launch part of his forces from New York, where he would remain. Another British general, Charles Cornwallis, would secure New York City, and then head south to the Carolinas. He hoped to rally the landowners of the South to the Loyalist Cause. …show more content…
These movements made for some confusion among the valley farmers. We saw some other country folk move toward the camp. These were Tory farmers who now understood that Clinton would leave Philadelphia. They were concerned that Washington would retaliate against them for their having supplied the British with food and firewood. They now wished to befriend the Americans whom they realized would likely retrieve the city. In the end, General Clinton felt morally obliged to take many Tories with him to New York.

Some Philadelphia Patriots who had fled to the countryside also came into the encampment, asking whether it would be safe to return to the city once the British had left. It was difficult to know who was who, and General Washington was leery of the refugees’ new “friendly” behavior. We Turners had asked ourselves whether we should be able to return our own small family back to the city. We did not even know if our house was still standing. It might have been destroyed by the

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