John André (1750—80)

by John André (1750—80)

Pencil and watercolor on paper. Cliveden, the Chew House, Germantown, PA.

by John André (1750—80)

Pen and brown ink on paper; 10.2 x 13.0 cm (4 x 5 1/8 in). Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.

Despite deceptive appearances, the British were far from luxuriating in Philadelphia while Washington and his army suffered at Valley Forge. Every public building was used to house two thousand sick and wounded British and Hessian soldiers. The army was placed on half-rations, and there was a shortage of medical and hospital supplies that caused tension between the British and the Hessians. Unable to obtain supplies, the city became a prison for as many as fifty thousand inhabitants and troops.

Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy
The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire (2013)