Category «Battles»

Danbury Raid and the Battle of Ridgefield

Light infantry fire from fence.

By early 1777, Danbury, Connecticut served as a major supply depot that included food, clothing, dry goods, and necessary materials for the Continental Army’s survival. Washington’s main army was at winter quarters in and around Morristown, New Jersey. A large contingency of men were also stationed in the Lower Hudson Valley, at Peekskill, New York, …

Battle of Whitemarsh: Washington Dodged a Bullet

Bbattle of whitemarsh british volley

The Battle of White Marsh, December 5 – 8, 1777, also known as the White Marsh Affair or Battle of Edge Hill, was a series of large, heated skirmishes that occurred over three days between the main armies of General George Washington and British General William Howe. This series of clashes between opposing forces was …

Battle of Three Rivers June 8, 1775

Bayonetting Redcoat

The Invasion of Canada Did Not Go Well for the Americans From the time the Americans were defeated before the walls of Quebec City on a blizzard evening of December 31, 1775, until the last of a devastated rebel force gave up Canada in mid June, 1776, the entire episode of a new nation trying …

Battle of Gloucester 1775

Reenactors fire from wharf at British on grounded schooner.

The Battle of Gloucester, fought on August 8, 1775, between the British sloop of war HMS Falcon and Gloucester townspeople, resulted in a resounding American victory. Many British seamen and marines were captured, with casualties on both sides, before the British warship broke off the fight and departed. The result of the clash proved to …

Battle of Gloucester 1777

German Jaeger pickets. Photo by Ken Bohrer.

Labeled a battle, what occurred along the Delaware River in the late afternoon on November 25, 1777 was actually a forty-five-minute skirmish; albeit the British force suffered a larger than usual number of casualties for a minor clash of arms. Considered an American victory, militarily, it was not significant. But politically, it proved worth noting …

Battle of Machias: First Naval Battle of the American Revolution

Machias First Naval Battle of the war

Desperation, suspicion, coercion, passion, vengeance, obstinance, and courage; it was all there, each contributing their fair share in a preview to the first naval battle of the American Revolution – the Battle of Machias, June 11-12, 1775. It was not an epic fleet battle of first rates and frigates clobbering each other with massive broadsides. …

Battle of Chelsea Creek

Fought between May 27 and 28, 1775, on the islands off northeastern Boston, it is also known as the Battle of Noodle’s Island or Battle of Hog Island. It was the American Revolution’s second military action of open warfare within the region; the Battle of Lexington and Concord being the first on April 19th. It …

Attack on German Flatts 1778

The raid on the frontier settlement of German Flatts occurred on September 17, 1778, at present day Herkimer, in central upstate New York on the Mohawk River. It was enacted by British partisan forces of Loyalists and four nations of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederation, mainly Mohawk and Seneca, under the overall command of Mohawk Chief …