The New York and New Jersey campaign was a series of American Revolutionary War battles for control of New York City and New Jersey that lasted from the summer of 1776 to the spring of 1777. The brothers General William Howe and Admiral Richard Howe led a British and Hessian expedition of 32,000 soldiers, 10,000 seamen, 400 transports, and over 70 warships - the largest force ever to invade America - to New York Harbor and drove the Continental Army and its general George Washington out of New York following the Battle of Long Island. However, the British overextended their reach into New Jersey, enabling Washington to defeat the Hessians at the December 1776 Battle of Trenton and the British at the January 1777 Battle of Princeton. By March 1777, the British were left with only a few outposts near New York City, which remained under British control for the rest of the war.
Background[]
After liberating Boston, George Washington moved his army to New York in anticipation of Britain's next step. In March 1776, Washington forced General William Howe's army out of the besieged city of Boston, bringing the city under Patriot control for the rest of the war. The lifting of the siege left Howe free to focus on New York City, a vital port and springboard, which the British were eager to bring under their control. Anticipating this move, Washington ordered the building of defenses around New York Harbor.
Campaign[]
The Battle of Long Island[]
When the first Royal Navy masts came into view outside New York Harbor on 25 June 1776, it was no surprise for George Washington. The American commander had expected General William Howe and his brother, Admiral Richard Howe - joint commanders of a British expeditionary force - to make a move upon New York City. By 12 August, 32,000 soldiers, including 8,000 Hessians, had landed on nearby Staten Island. Watchers in the city counted ten ships of the line, 20 frigates, and hundreds of transports anchored in the harbor. It was the largest expeditionary force Britain had ever sent abroad. Washington took a risk by dividing his 19,000-man force between Manhattan Island and neighboring Long Island. Brooklyn Heights on Long Island, just across the East River from Manhattan, dominated New York City, and Washington realized that artillery placed there could destroy the city. In order to draw fire away from Manhattan, he fortified the heights. His men dug a jagged line of breastworks - protected by ditches and sharpened stakes - above Gowanus Creek. Nevertheless, he still worried that the British would attack the city instead.
Mass invasion[]
On 22 August, 15,000 British soldiers began to come ashore on Long Island. Three brigades of Hessians soon joined them, the camps spreading for nearly 6 miles. From a low range of wooded hills to the north, nearly 10,000 Patriot infantrymen watched. Most of them were stationed behind the Brooklyn Heights fortifications, but other units guarded four passes through the hills, all of which linked up to the main Brooklyn road.
The Patriots had dug rudimentary works, but the pass at the easternmost end of the hills, Jamaica Pass, had only a small band of five mounted militiamen for defense. This was not a well-known pass, and Washington's officers did not expect Howe's men to use it.
Shortly after midnight on 27 august, a 2-mile-long column of Redcoats led by General Henry Clinton quietly took the road to Jamaica Pass. Well before dawn they had captured the five-man outpost. From there, they turned left, preparing to roll up the unsuspecting American line.
As the sun rose, all across the Patriot front the British made a great show of advancing, cannon roaring. Soon panic-stricken Patriot militiamen were pouring out of woods and across fields, fleeing not the feints to their front but rather General Clinton's onslaught coming up the road from Jamaica Pass. As morning wore on, even the feints became real attacks, and long lines of Jaegers and grenadiers began pushing hard against the collapsing positions of Washington's army. The Patriots, now eager to retreat, were routed.
Those who were able ran for the safety of the Brooklyn fortifications. If they made it, it was due to a smart-looking set of troops dressed in brown hunting shirts or blue coats with red facings: the Maryland and Delaware Lines. They made up the Continental Army's western flank, under General William Alexander, known as Lord Stirling. Anchored on Gowanus Creek, these stalwart troops had held off British attacks for much of the day, even though they were heavily outnumbered, withstanding hours of heavy cannonading.
Eventually, the leading elements of Howe's flank attack - Cornwallis' troops - reached a battlefield landmark, the Cortelyou House, and cut off the Patriots' line of retreat. Some of the Delaware troops crossed Gowanus Creek to reach the Brooklyn lines, but more than 250 Marylanders stayed behind to buy time for the retreating troops. The last Marylanders assaulted Cornwallis' lines five times, but the sixth attempt foundered. "Good God! What brave fellows I must this day lose!" lamented Washington, watching from the Heights.
Midnight retreat[]
The Battle of Long Island was over. Washington had been thoroughly outgeneraled, with more than a thousand men left dead, wounded, or captured. Howe's losses were less than half that. Yet Washington still had 9,500 men on the Heights, including reinforcements from the city, behind the Brooklyn fortifications. Luckily, a stiff northeast wind kept the Royal Navy out of the East River at Washington's back, but it also brought two days of drenching rain. With water waist-deep in their trenches, and all their gunpowder soaked and useless, the rebels could have been overrun by a single charge of grenadiers.
Howe, though, missed that opportunity and prepared to besiege the rebel works. Realizing the clock was ticking, on 29 August Washington issued orders to take all boats to the East River and assemble them at Manhattan's wharves after dark. That night, an array of barges, skills, and sloops - manned by skilled Massachusetts boatmen from the maritime towns of Marblehead and Salem - began ferrying troops, guns, horses, and supplies from Brooklyn to the city. The six-hour operation took place in total silence. British sentries grew suspicious, but dawn brought a thick fog that masked the final embarkations. The British now controlled Long Island, but Washington had saved his army.
Anticipation builds[]
London was ecstatic over the news of Howe's victory at Long Island, and King George III promptly conferred a knighthood upon the British general. But the battle for control in New York was far from over. For about three weeks, New York saw little activity. Adverse winds prevented the Royal Navy from crossing the East River in the city, which was still held by the Patriots. As August turned to September, from his Manhattan stronghold at Harlem Heights, Washington waited, anticipating Howe's next move.
During the lull in hostilities, the Patriots decided to try something new. On 7 September, a submersible ship named Turtle was sent to attack Admiral Howe's flagship, HMS Eagle. It was the first submarine to be used in naval warfare. However, Sergeant Ezra Lee, pedaling the Turtle, was unable to attach explosives to the Eagle, or to keep the Turtle submerged. The attack was abandoned with the Eagle unharmed, and the standoff continued.
Meanwhile, Patriot General Nathanael Greene and New York's John Jay began arguing for the city to be burned, to keep it out of British hands. The Second Continental Congress soon vetoed this plan, declaring that "it should in no event be damaged." Nonetheless, a fire broke out on 21 September. By then, however, Washington had plenty of other things to worry about.
Retreat from New York[]
As he waited in New York City for the British attack, Washington made a difficult decision. The ability of the Royal Navy to outflank the Patriots via both the East and Hudson Rivers made it clear that he must abandon the city. On 8 September, he informed the Continental Congress, "On every side there is a choice of difficulties," and confessed to "some apprehension that all our troops will not do their duty." The Patriots had very little time to act. On 15 September, a thundering barrage told Washington that General William Howe had begun the next phase of his campaign. Galloping southward from his headquarters at Harlem, Washington spotted five Royal Navy warships off Kip's Bay on the East River firing 70 guns at his defenses. Soon, more than 12,000 enemy troops were pouring ashore, routing his militiamen. Smacking them with his riding cane, Washington tried to rally his men. The Hessians were nearly upon him when an aide-de-camp grabbed his bridle to turn his horse.
Battle of Harlem Heights[]
As Howe's regulars surged north along the Post Road, pushing Washington's main body toward Harlem, General Israel Putnam led the Patriot rearguard out of the city. Although Putnam abandoned more than 50 cannons, his column still stretched out for 2 miles, making them vulnerable to attack. With this in mind, he followed a little-used farm lane screened from the Post Road by thick woods, where today's Central Park now stands. IT was a hot, dusty, and nerve-wracking 12-mile march, but the column arrived safely, joining Washington's lines at Harlem Heights just after dark, having had only one brush with British troops.
That night, the opposing armies bivouacked 2 miles apart, facing each other across the valley. Howe's tents stretched all the way from the Hudson to the Harlem River, while Washington's men lay on their arms, without blankets, in previously prepared fortifications on the crest of Harlem Heights. In the early hours on 16 September, a detachment of Patriot rangers crept down into the valley and up the forested southern escarpment. By dawn, they were in combat with detachments of British light infantry and the 42nd Highlanders, called the "Black Watch". Sent scrambling back into the woods, the rangers heard the taunting notes of a bugle horn - the rallying cry for a fox chase.
This deliberate insult provoked a ferocious Patriot counterattack later that morning. Initially, this drove back the British, but the Redcoats then rallied, and for the next few hours battle raged over buckwheat fields and fenced orchards. Grenadiers, Hessian Jaegers, and artillery were brought into play, and the Continentals - including some routed survivors of Kip's Bay - disengaged. Yet the Battle of Harlem Heights boosted the confidence of the Patriots, who had distinguished themselves in a stand-up fight with British regulars.
Armies on the move[]
Howe stayed in place on the Heights for four weeks. On 12 October, he outflanked the rebel left again, landing 4,000 troops first at Throgs Neck on Long Island Sound - where they were halted by unexpectedly marshy conditions and 25 riflemen behind a woodpile - and then six days later at nearby Pell's Point. Meanwhile, Washington's army, lacking tents and even kettles, had quit Manhattan Island and began falling back to the heights above White Plains. The Patriots had so few horses that they were forced to roll their cannons and wagons by hand.
At White Plains, Howe caught up with Washington. The British commander, studying his counterpart's positions, saw 14,500 rebels strongly entrenched between a millpond and the Bronx River. But just across the river, overlooking the rebel line, Howe could see Washington's men, exposed to attack, busily digging defensive works on Chatterton's Hill.
Battle of White Plains[]
On 28 October, nearly 20,000 British and Hessian soldiers lounged about the autumnal wheatfields, enjoying the weather, as their commanders held an open-air council of war. Soon enough, however, 4,000 of them were on their feet. Supported by a dozen guns, they attacked Chatterton's Hill. The Battle of White Plains began with a cannonade and then seesawed back and forth between assault and repulse, volley and bayonet. Gradually, the Hessians and British dragoons forced the Patriots off the summit of the hill. Howe dug in and again the British troops began to outflank their opponents. Then, on 31 October, the Patriots slipped away, entrenching 5 miles away, on the heights of North Castle. Their defensive works were so hurried that some of the sharpened stakes bristling along the front were just uprooted cornstalks.
Howe chose not to follow the Patriot commander. Instead, his army turned southwest toward the Patriot garrison Fort Washington - which its namesake had left isolated 15 miles behind the lines. That stronghold, high above the Hudson, anchored a chain of sunken hulks and chevaux-de-frise, spiked obstacles designed to prevent enemy warships from ascending the river. But one Royal Navy frigate after another had passed these barriers with ease, and thousands of British and Hessian troops assailed the river's cliffs. On 15 November, the fort surrendered, and with it went 2,600 men, 146 cannon, 12,000 shot, 2,800 muskets, and 400,000 cartridges. Overlooking events on the far bank of the Hudson stood a distraught figure on a horse. Washington had galloped south along the river to watch the fort fall.
Washington's army fled west. Many of his 5,400 remaining soldiers lacked shoes, shirts, and coats, and slept without tents or blankets. As winter rains set in, turning the New Jersey roads into quagmires, the men began deserting in droves. Lord Cornwallis, ordered by Howe to pursue Washington, was gaining on the Patriot commander every day. With only one more river to cross - the Delaware - Washington expected the worst. On 18 December 1776, he wrote to a relative: "I think the game is pretty near up." Morale was low throughout the army. That December, Thomas Paine, a volunteer with the Patriots picked up his pen and, using the head of a drum as a makeshift desk, began the series of articles that became The Crisis with his most famous line, "These are the times that try men's souls."
Trenton and Princeton[]
In early December 1776, the 6,000 officers and men of Washington's army were spread thinly along the banks of the frozen Delaware River, huddled behind earthworks with few guns and no tents. To every eye it was a defeated army and its general a beaten man. In the wake of a series of British victories, George Washington was expecting to be relieved of his command, a mortal blow to his pride. It was also an army about to dissolve: after 31 December, when most enlistments expired, just 1,400 men would remain. Without more men, there was a danger that General Howe's troops would be able to walk across the frozen river and win the war without firing a shot.
Howe had let Lord Cornwallis take Christmas leave and put the bulk of the British forces into winter quarters in New York. But he had also established a chain of posts along the highway from New York to Philadelphia, at Amboy, New Brunswick, Princeton, and Trenton, on the banks of the Delaware. Pondering those dispositions, Washington devised a desperate plan: he would recross the river and risk everything in a surprise raid on Trenton, garrisoned by 1,400 Hessians. On 23 December, Washington wrote to his aide-de-camp, Colonel Reed, that "necessity, dire necessity, will, nay must, justify my attack."
Launching the offensive[]
On Christmas night, 2,400 handpicked men, commanded by Washington himself and General Nathanael Greene, slogged to McKonkey's Ferry on the Delaware. In bitterly cold weather, the men, horses, and cannons were loaded onto flat-bottomed Durham boats manned by John Glover's "Marbleheaders", who had rescued the army from Brooklyn Heights, and ferried across the icy waters. IT was 3 AM when the last man stepped onto the enemy shore, and it was another hour before the army began to march.
They hurried down the rutted roads to Trenton, expecting to meet disaster: the day was dawning, the gunpowder was wet, and the shoeless men were leaving bloody footprints in the snow. The Patriots could only hope that the Hessian forces in charge of the British post at Trenton had imbibed too much Christmas cheer. Certainly their commander, Colonel Johann Rall, had tarried late at wine and cards. A message sent to alert him about the Patriot attack - "Rebels approaching in force" - was later found in his pocket, probably unread.
Just before 8 AM Washington's forces overran the Hessian pickets. Soon they were pouring into the snowbound town. At first, few muskets were heard firing, so drenched were the flintlocks. Then the big guns were unlimbered and the roar of cannons echoed through the streets. While a stupefied Rall hastily formed his lines, dried their flints, and began shooting out of windows. Within an hour, Rall had been shot off his horse, mortally wounded, and the Patriots had taken 948 prisoners, six field pieces, 1,000 muskets, 14 drums, and 15 stands of colors. Twenty-two Hessians lay dead in the snow, while 92 others were wounded. Washington did not lose a single man.
It was nightfall before the last Patriot soldier was ferried back across the river. The exhausted men had marched and fought continuously for nearly 50 hours. News of the triumph heartened Patriots everywhere, and the prisoners and captured colors were paraded through Philadelphia. Nonetheless, Washington had o persuade the Continental Congress to offer substantial cash bounties to convince his men to re-enlist. By 2 January, Washington and 5,000 troops were back in the abandoned streets of Trenton, ready to march to Princeton, a mere 12 miles away.
A furious clash[]
After the Patriot victory at Trenton, Howe withdrew every British post on the Delaware and recalled Cornwallis from leave. At the head of 8,000 men and a train of artillery, Cornwallis advanced on Trenton. Another battle loomed. But heavy rains and sodden roads delayed Cornwallis' approach, and Washington, making a night march over rough trails, circled around the British left flank. His goal, Princeton, was only lightly guarded. Dawn found Washington at the town's outskirts, where he sent General Hugh Mercer to seize a stone bridge on the nearby Trenton Road. A force of 1,200 Redcoats under Colonel Charles Mawhood was approaching that very spot.
The furious battle that followed lasted only 15 minutes, but the losses were great. When Mercer's horse went down, Washington galloped through the maelstrom rallying his men. Mawhood's troops, outnumbered, fought bravely but eventually broke. The battle ended when 194 Redcoats, holed up in the College of New Jersey's Nassau Hall, surrendered. But the Patriots didn't occupy the field, and when Cornwallis entered the town he found they had already gone. The earl didn't follow them; instead he pushed into New Brunswick to protect a supply depot there; instead he pushed into New Brunswick to protect a supply depot there. Washington headed north for Morristown and its protective circle of hills.
Aftermath[]
Washington's success at Trenton and Princeton revitalized the Continental Army and forced the British to revise their plans. After Trenton and Princeton, General Howe pulled all British forces back to the outskirts of New York for winter, effectively clearing New Jersey of British and Loyalist forces. Howe spent the winter planning a spring offensive, aiming to capture Philadelphia via Chesapeake Bay and the Brandywine Valley. Patriots celebrated as news of Trenton and Princeton spread through city, town, and countryside. Encouraged by the Patriot victories, the French increased financial aid to the Continental Congress, and shipped military supplies to the Continental Army.