Browsing: Papers of John Adams, Volume 3

Howe arrived in America in May 1775, senior among the general officers sent to aid Gen. Thomas Gage, and commanded the British forces ordered against Charlestown. When Gage left Boston on 10 October 1775, Howe took his place as commander of all British troops except those under Sir Guy Carleton in Canada. It was Howe who ordered evacuation of Boston in March 1776. With his older brother, Admiral Richard, Viscount Howe, he led the peace commission through which Great Britain hoped to gain the submission of the colonists by offering pardons. Americans found the attached conditions unacceptable ( DNB ). This picture is reproduced from An Impartial History of the War in America between Great Britain and Her Colonies from Its Commencement to the End of the Year 1779, London, 1780.