Which American Officer was known as the Old Fox?

Answer 1

The British applied that nickname to Washington, at least early in the War for Independence. The Continental Army had performed so poorly in the New York campaign that the British musicians had started playing fox hunting calls whenever the inevitable retreat began. Thus they were saying that this was not a war but a giant fox hunt and the Americans not soldiers but merely frightened prey.

The most famous use of the term was after Washington's crossing of the Delaware and subsequent victory at Trenton. A British force under Cornwallis had advanced and taken up positions outside the town, seemingly pinning Washington's little army against the river. Cornwallis intended to attack the next morning and put an end to the rebellion. He wrote, "We'll bag the old fox in the morning" Well, when they got up the next morning the American Army was nowhere to be seen and Cornwallis and his officers had no idea where they had gone, until they caught the faint sound of cannons booming ten miles on their rear where Washington was falling on a British column of reinforcements in Princeton.

P.S. The Old Fox in not to be confused with Col. Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox of the Carolina campaigns.