Note 903 — Chapter V · (continued 2)

The principal controversial tracts upon the charges of incompetency preferred against Howe are these: The Narrative of Lieut.-Gen. Howe relative to his Conduct during his late command in North America (London, 1780, several eds.). Letters to a nobleman on the Conduct of the War in the middle Colonies, (London, 1780, various eds.). Howe replied in Observations; and this led to a Reply to the Observations (London, 1781). Another severe critic appeared in Two letters from Agricolas to Sir William Howe (London, 1779). Galloway was sharp in his Examination. The loyalists felt Howe's shortcomings poignantly, as they prolonged, as was thought, their exile (Life of Peter Van Shaack, 167). The contemporary historians, like Murray and Gordon, did not spare him. The later ones, like Andrews (ii. ch. 26), Adolphus (ii. ch. 31), Smyth (Lectures, no. 34), were quite as severe. The American historians have not disputed the adverse conclusion (Marshall, Bancroft, Irving, etc.). Cf. Sargent's André, ch. 7, and a note in his Stansbury and Odell, 137. The current story that the charms of Mrs. Loring paralyzed the English general finds occasional record (John Bernard's Recoll. of America, N. Y., 1887, p. 60). On General Howe's lineage, as affecting his characteristics, see General Sir William Howe's Orderly-Book, 1775-1776, etc., collected by B. F. Stevens, with hist. introd. by Edw. E. Hale (London, 1884); also Dawson's Westchester, p. 217.