September 3, 1777. The first significant engagement of the British campaign to capture Philadelphia, then the capital of the United States. British General Howe, along with Earl Charles Cornwallis and Baron Wilhelm Knyphausen smash into American Brigadier-General William Maxwell s light corps. This battle led to the British victory at Brandywine a few days later, and the final capture of Philadelphia. This is the largest fight in Delaware during the Revolution, and some say, the first time the American Stars-and-Stripes were flown on the battlefield.