PHILADELPHIA OCCUPIED.--Two weeks later Howe entered Philadelphia in triumph. [12] Congress had fled to Lancaster, and later went to York, Pennsylvania. Washington now attacked Howe at Germantown (just north of Philadelphia), but was defeated and went into winter quarters at Valley Forge, where the patriots suffered greatly from cold and hunger. [13] [Illustration: AT VALLEY FORGE.] RESULT OF THE CAMPAIGN.--The year's campaign was far from a failure. [14] The surprise at Trenton and the victory at Princeton showed that Washington was a general of the first rank. The defeats at Brandywine and Germantown did not dishearten the army. The victory at Saratoga was one of the decisive campaigns of the world's history; for it ruined the plans of the British [15] and secured us the aid of France. HELP FROM FRANCE, 1778.--In 1776 Congress commissioned Benjamin Franklin, Arthur Lee, and Silas Deane to go to France and seek her help. France, smarting under the loss of Louisiana and Canada (1763), would gladly have helped us; but not till the victories at Trenton, Princeton, Oriskany, and Saratoga could she feel sure of the ability of the Americans to fight. Then the French king recognized our independence, and in February, 1778, made with us a treaty of alliance and went to war with Great Britain. The effect of the French alliance was immediate. France began to fit out a fleet and army to help us. Hearing of this, Clinton, who had succeeded Howe in command at Philadelphia, left that city with his army and started for New York. [Illustration: CHURCH NEAR MONMOUTH BATTLEFIELD, BUILT IN 1752.] MONMOUTH, JUNE 28, 1778.--Washington decided to pursue, and as Clinton, hampered by an immense train of baggage, moved slowly across New Jersey, he was overtaken by the Americans at Monmouth. Charles Lee [16] was to begin the attack, and Washington, coming up a little later, was to complete the defeat of the enemy. But Lee was a traitor, and having attacked the British, began a retreat which would have lost the day had not Washington come up just in time to lead a new attack. The battle raged till nightfall, and in the darkness Clinton slipped away and went on to New York. Washington now crossed the Hudson, encamped at White Plains, and during three years remained in that neighborhood, constantly threatening the British in New York. [17] BEGINNING OF THE NAVY.--More than three years had now passed since the fight at Lexington, and here let us stop and review what the Americans had been doing at sea. At the outset, the colonists had no warships at all. Congress therefore (in December, 1775) ordered thirteen armed vessels to be built at once, bought merchant ships to serve as cruisers, and thus created a navy of thirty vessels before the 4th of July, 1776. [18]