ALBANY -- Did the money Massachusetts spent on a monument honoring a British officer killed in a forgotten skirmish 250 years ago pay big dividends two decades later when the deceased redcoat's brothers were poised to crush the rebellious American colonies?

The way military history author Stephen Brumwell sees it, the tribute the notoriously tightfisted New Englanders paid to Lord George Augustus Howe was well worth the expense, considering the role it may have played in the outcome of the American Revolution, when Howe's two brothers commanded British land and sea forces in North America.

"This gesture made a big impact on Howe's surviving younger brothers," Brumwell said in a telephone interview from his home in The Netherlands. "It was a show of respect they never forgot."

Historians and armchair generals have long speculated why Lord Howe's brothers failed to deliver the knockout blow to American forces during the Revolutionary War, especially after Gen. William Howe's redcoats had George Washington's Continental Army cornered at New York in the summer of 1776.

Brumwell believes one possible answer can be traced back to a forest firefight on July 6, 1758, during the French and Indian War.

Lord Howe, then a rising star in the British army, was second-in-command of a 16,000-strong army of regulars and American provincials intent on capturing the French fort at Ticonderoga.

A proponent of the forest warfare tactics employed by American frontiersmen, Howe was leading a patrol when it ran into a French force that was lost in the woods. In the opening volley, a musket ball struck Howe in the chest, killing him instantly.

Howe's men routed the French, but the army was demoralized by the loss of their beloved officer. The 33-year-old Howe's charm and courage had endeared him to common soldiers and fellow officers among the colonial militia more accustomed to supercilious British officers.

Two days later, the vastly outnumbered French defeated the British at the Battle of Ticonderoga, a setback many historians attribute largely to the grief-stricken English commander's ineffective leadership in the aftermath of Howe's death.

Howe's sacrifice wasn't forgotten by the many Massachusetts soldiers who fought at Ticonderoga. A year after he was buried at a church in Albany, the Massachusetts colony raised 250 pounds (about $60,000 today) for an obelisk to be placed in Howe's honor in Westminster Abbey, final resting place for generations of English royalty and other notables.

The tribute by the colonists deeply touched Howe's younger brothers, who idolized their older sibling. William went on to lead the British army in North America during the Revolutionary War, while brother Richard commanded the naval forces.

For a time, both served as "peace commissioners" as England sought an end to the armed conflict with its 13 American colonies. The Howes were unsuccessful, and William Howe would be roundly criticized for failing to end the rebellion despite beating Washington's army several times.

Brumwell believes the Howes may have been influenced by their enduring gratitude toward the Americans, some of whom had served with the brothers' hero sibling.

"They had this sentimental attachment to the colonists," Brumwell said.

John Ferling, retired history professor at the University of West Georgia, calls Brumwell's contention about the Lord Howe monument's impact on the war's outcome "really speculative."