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On 15 September, 1776, the British army under General William Howe invaded Manhattan Island, with the largest expeditionary force in their history. George Washington's Continental Army, still in disarray after the disastrous Battle of Brooklyn some two weeks earlier, retreated north to Harlem Heights, leaving New York in British hands. Control of the city was Howe's primary objective. Located at the mouth of the strategically vital Hudson river, it had become the centrepiece of England's strategy for putting down the American rebellion. key to the colonies, New York proved to be the fatal chalice that poisoned the British war effort. The Battle for New York tells the story of how the city became the pivot on which the American Revolution turned - from the political and religious struggles of the 1760s and early 1770s that polarised its citizens and increasingly made New York a hotbed of radical thought and action; to the campaign of 1776 that turned New York into a series of battlefields; to the seven years of British occupation, during which time Washington and Congress were as determined to regain the city as the British were to hold it. the book, was by far the largest military venture of the Revolutionary War; it involved almost every significant participant in the war on both sides; and there can be little doubt that during it the fate of America hung in the balance. Moreover, the outcome had a direct impact on the major turning points of the rest of the war.
Reprint of the original, first published in 1878.
A colorful figure of 18th-century America, Israel Putnam (1718-1790) played a key role in both the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. In 1758 he barely escaped from being burned alive by Mohawk warriors. He later commanded a force of 500 men who were shipwrecked off the coast of Cuba. It was he who reportedly gave the command "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes" at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Detailing Putnam's close relationships with Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, and John and Abigail Adams, this first full-length biography of Putnam in more than a century re-examines the life of a revolutionary whose seniority in the Continental Army was second only to that of George Washington.
The Battle of Harlem Heights is an underappreciated milestone in American military history. The engagement on upper Manhattan Island on September 16, 1776, was the first successful battle for George Washington's troops in the quest for independence from Great Britain and presaged the emergence of an effective fighting force among the citizen-soldiers who made up the Continental Army. The cooperative effort of regiments from New England, Maryland, and Virginia--whose men lacked any sense of national identity before the Revolution--indicated the potential for this fledgling army to cohere around a common national purpose and affiliation and become the primary instrument for securing America's right to self-rule. The action began when a contingent of rangers led by Col. Thomas Knowlton of Connecticut encountered British light infantry while conducting a reconnaissance mission on Washington's orders. What began as a skirmish transformed into a full-fledged battle as both sides reinforced, and a heavy engagement continued for several hours until, with ammunition running low, the British withdrew. Washington decided not to pursue and risk confrontation with a larger force, thereby keeping his army intact. In The Battle of Harlem Heights, 1776, David Price conveys the significance of the Continental Army's first victory and highlights the role of one of its key participants, the largely forgotten Knowlton--the "father of American military intelligence"--who gave his life during the action while urging his rangers forward. No matter how many times U.S. Army troops have recorded a battlefield success over the past two and a half centuries--whether on American soil, in a European wood, across a Middle Eastern desert, or on a Pacific island--one thing about that history remains indisputable. They did it first at Harlem Heights. Small Battles: Military History as Local History Mark Edward Lender and James Kirby Martin, Series Editors Small Battles offers a fresh and important new perspective on the story of America's early conflicts. It was the small battles, not the clash of major armies, that truly defined the fighting during the colonial wars, the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the hostilities on the frontiers. This is dramatic military history as seen through the prism of local history--history with a depth of detail, a feeling for place, people, and the impact of battle and its consequences that the story of major battles often cannot convey. The Small Battles series focuses on America's military conflicts at their most intimate and revealing level.
Book 1 in the Shades of Liberty Series that chronicles African Americans who fought in the American Revolutionary War.
The story of General George Washington and the Continental Army's first major campaign, in a slimm detailed volume. General Sir William Howe's New York campaign gave the British their best chance of destroying the Continental Army and George Washington's resistance to colonial power. Howe succeeded in dividing the Continentals, defeated them on Long Island and forced Washington to retreat to Brooklyn Heights. Under siege there, Washington successfully crossed the East River to Manhattan but soon had to fall back on Harlem Heights. After a few weeks Howe forced the Continentals north to White Plains and defeated them again. However, he allowed Washington to withdraw and preserve his army when a more aggressive pursuit could have ended the war. Instead, with the British army rapidly weakening and facing huge manpower shortages, Washington emerged from a succession of defeats to produce what was ultimately a war-winning strategy. The author provides fascinating insights into a unique campaign in which a string of British victories ultimately led to failure and defeat.
The Final Significant Clashes of the Revolutionary War in the North By the spring of 1780, American fortunes were at a low point. Charleston, South Carolina, fell to British forces on May 12. At Morristown, New Jersey, George Washington's army struggled to recover from the worst winter of the entire war. The national economy failing, his troops short of supplies and on the verge of mutiny, Washington prepared for an all-out assault on British-occupied New York City with the support of approaching French naval and land forces under General Rochambeau. The planned attack was a gamble born of desperation. Washington felt he had to risk it, or face certain defeat. In New York City, German General Wilhelm von Knyphausen sensed opportunity. Commanding there in the absence of British General Henry Clinton, who was on his way back from Charleston, Knyphausen hoped that a quick strike into New Jersey could deliver a staggering blow to Washington's weakened army. The June 7-8 Battle of Connecticut Farms, however, found American militia and Continentals--mostly soldiers of General William Maxwell's New Jersey Brigade--to be shockingly stalwart. In a series of sharp engagements, fought hard on both sides, the Americans convinced Knyphausen to turn back. Clinton, fresh from his victory in the South, tried again on June 23 to end the war. His advance into New Jersey, intended to draw Washington into the open and perhaps capture Morristown, culminated in the Battle of Springfield. Once again, though, Washington's hardened soldiers, led by men like Colonel Israel Angell, Colonel Elias Dayton, and Major "Light Horse Harry" Lee, fought Clinton's forces to a standstill. The Battles for Connecticut Farms and Springfield, 1780, by distinguished historian Edward G. Lengel, chronicles these two important battles that marked a turning of the tide in the Revolutionary War. Drawing on newly available primary sources, the author presents a fresh and engaging interpretation of these events, which exposed King George III's declining military fortunes in North America even as they revealed the resilience of George Washington's army. The Small Battles Series: Military History as Local History Mark Edward Lender and James Kirby Martin, Series Editors Small Battles offers a fresh and important new perspective on the story of America's early conflicts. It was the small battles, not the clash of major armies, that truly defined the fighting during the colonial wars, the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the hostilities on the frontiers. This is dramatic military history as seen through the prism of local history--history with a depth of detail, a feeling for place, people, and the impact of battle and its consequences that the story of major battles often cannot convey. The Small Battles Series focuses on America's military conflicts at their most intimate and revealing level.