Germantown, Maryland
Germantown is an urbanized census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland. With a population of 90,676 as of 2013 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, Germantown is the third most populous place in Maryland, after the city of Baltimore, and the census-designated place of Columbia. Germantown is located approximately outside of the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C. and is an important part of the Washington metropolitan area.
Battle of Germantown
Germantown was a hamlet of stone houses, spreading from what is now known as Mount Airy on the north, to what is now Market Square in the south. Extending southwest from Market Square was Schoolhouse Lane, running to the point where Wissahickon Creek emptied from a steep gorge, into the Schuylkill River. Howe had established his main camp along the high ground of Schoolhouse and Church lanes. The western wing of the camp, under the command of Hessian general Wilhelm von Knyphausen, had a picket of two Jäger battalions, positioned on the high ground above the mouth of the Wissahickon to the far left. A brigade of Hessians, and two brigades of British regulars camped along Market Square. East of the Square, two British brigades under the command of General James Grant had encamped, with two squadrons of dragoons, and the 1st battalion of Light Infantry. The Queen's Rangers, a unit of loyalist Americans recruited from New York, covered the right flank.