Howe, George Augustus
Howe, George Augustus
HOWE, GEORGE AUGUSTUS. (1724–1758). British general and third Viscount Howe. The eldest surviving brother of Richard and William Howe, he entered the First Foot Guards as an ensign in 1745. On 25 February 1757 took command of the Third Battalion of the unconventional Sixtieth Foot, the Royal Americans. Reaching Halifax in July, he became colonel of the Fifty-fifth Foot on 28 September. Howe's warmth and lack of affectation, combined with his energetic interest in forest fighting, won him the admiration of American soldiers at a time when their relations with regular officers were frequently strained. A local brigadier general from 29 December, he was attached to Sir Robert Abercromby's advance on Ticonderoga. On 6 July 1758 Howe was killed in a woodland skirmish near Lake George, and his healthy influence on Anglo-American relations came to an untimely end.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gruber, Ira D. The Howe Brothers and the American Revolution. New York: Norton, 1975.
revised by John Oliphant