Non-Profit Dedicated to Historical Education of the American Revolution and the Colonial Period
September 15th, 1776. A company of Connecticut farm boys sit behind one of the many redoubts dug into the upper slope of Harlem Heights. Behind them stretches the northern plateau of Manhattan Island extending to King’s Bridge and spanning the Bronx River and leading to Westchester County. One week earlier the boys had been busy …
October 18, 1776 Westchester County NY. Colonel John Glover Commanded American Forces. General William Howe commanded British and Hessian troops Though considered a defeat for the Americans, scholars attribute the Battle of Pelham (or Pells Point) for saving the Continental Army. British ships sailed up the Long Island Sound and landed troops in the rear of Washington’s …
Eighteenth century battles were fought on the field of honor. In Europe, it meant that each army lined up and pounded away at each other over a spacious, flat field. If there were fortifications, massive trenches were dug, inching cannon forward until close enough to reduce the walls to rubble and encourage surrender. Continuous broadsides …
Maryland Regiment at the Battle of Long Island Tuesday, August 27, 1776. Since dawn, four hundred young men from Maryland exchanged volley for volley with some of England’s finest troops. Colonists from influential families, the former Baltimore Independent Cadets were experiencing their baptism of fire. In company with soldiers from Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, they …
Throughout the American Revolution the British demonstrated a wonderful incapacity to evolve an over-all strategy to crush the rebellion. They first moved against New England, regarded as the prime instigator of sedition. When that move failed, [the British forces, with a fleet of Tories in tow, evacuated Boston to Halifax], they transferred their main operations …
As far as battles fought during the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Harlem Heights was considered a smallish affair. As far as victor, most historians consider the contest a draw based on the number of casualties and because all parties returned to their former lines. However, its impact on both sides was immediate and …
Participant in the Three Major Surrenders of the Revolutionary War Major General Benjamin Lincoln was present with Major General Gage when they accepted British General John Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga – an event that historians agree tilted the scale for the Americans in their path towards independence. Lincoln was the commander of American forces at …
Vehemently Anti-American Officer of the Revolutionary War Pompous, self-assured, dogmatic, obstinate, opinionated, these and more could adequately describe the obese Englishman who’s hatred and low opinion of the Americans’ ability to fight in the Revolutionary War probably did more to help the patriot cause than some of America’s generals. James Grant’s degrading, anti-American comments, while …
Revolutionary War Captain 2nd New York Theodosius participated in several major battles of the Revolutionary War. He fought in the Battle of Long Island, his unit, the 4th Battalion of New York, was among the last to leave the field. Shortly after the defeat on Long Island, his regiment was sent north and joined General …
The summer of 1777 saw General Howe transporting a substantial part of his army south from New York to the Chesapeake Bay. His goal was to capture Philadelphia. After the Battle of Brandywine Creek, Sept. 11th, 1777, the Americans abandoned Philadelphia and General Cornwallis’ troops occupied the city on Sept. 26th. On Oct. 3rd, Washington …
Foreign Soldier in America’s Continental Army It is April 20th, 1777. The morning sun shimmers through the lifting fog as the fifty five year old battle scarred German warrior stands along the stone promenade of an ancient wharf in the small Spanish Port of Passage. He gazes out at the French ship Victoire as she …
October 4th, 1777 The Continental Army was licking its wounds after their defeat at Brandywine Creek on September 11, 1777. However, with the arrival of militia from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, including Wayne’s six hundred men who had rejoined the army after trailing the British, his army was larger than what he had at …
Ill-armed, still worse clothed, mostly unshod, scantily fed, discipline lacking, and poorly officered; these and more were accurate descriptions of the American Army that fled to the outskirts of Philadelphia in the fall of 1777 after their disastrous defeat at Brandywine Creek, Maryland. However, many saw evidence of hope among all this despair, especially those …
Always to the front in a fight and the last in a retreat, Lord Rawdon proved himself a brilliant and successful partisan leader. Sir George Otto Trevelyan Francis, Lord Rawdon[1] epitomized the perfect British officer in the eyes of those fine gentlemen who sat smugly in their distinguished seats in the House of Lords. …
Forgotten Patriots: Major Thomas Henley & The Raid on Montresor’s Island The genius of America starts as from a trance, at her neglect to guard the lives of a Knowlton and a Henly; and then absorbed in melancholy, sighs, “it was a mistake, they were not to have fallen, only upon the decision of the fate of an empire.”[1] …