This week in Revolutionary War history, let’s check up on what was going on 250 years ago in the early-United States. Last week, General George Washington, pressed with his men into Harlem Heights, tried to get a handle on the diminishing stockpiles for his men: both ammunition and other supplies. The Howe brothers had also attempted to get Americans to defect to the Loyalist side at the same time neighboring states vowed to send reinforcements to New York, where the lines were entrenched in defense.
On October 4, 1776, Washington writes to President of the Continental Congress John Hancock from Harlem. He is appreciative of the great effort Congress has made, though he presses, “Your army, as I mentioned in my last, is upon the eve of its political dissolution.” Washington fears many men, even with greater incentives to reenlist, will soon abandon their post and head home.
He adds, “True it is you have voted a larger one in lieu of it, but the season is late, and there is a material difference between voting of battalions and raising of men. In the latter, there are more difficulties than Congress [is] aware of; which makes it my duty – to inform them.”
He also insists it may be beneficial to offer them $20 and 100 acres of land to maintain their numbers. They are currently outnumbered on land, and they are also at great risk of a rout.
The next day, Washington writes to his brother, Samuel, and states that what is reported by the news overstates their advantage, writing, “Matters in this quarter, have by no means worn that favorable aspect you have been taught to believe from the publications in the gazettes.”
On October 8, the British fleet abandons Fort George on Bald Island, North Carolina, halting their ambition in the southern region and further shifting the focus of the war north to New York.
Control over the Hudson River continues to be contested, and although the lower part of the river near Manhattan is firmly in British control, they maintain efforts to push north, through defenses to drive a wedge and separate New England from the rest of the states. On October 9, Washington frantically writes to Major General William Heath, who is stationed across the Harlem River in Kingsbridge.
The general states that two British ships, led by British General Henry Clinton, in a probing attack, bypassed defenses at Fort Washington and landed men up the river at Dobb’s Ferry, about 15 miles upriver. Washington pushes “to be as expeditious as possible in getting the new ships afloat” to stop the loss of the Hudson.
That same day, far to the west, the Spanish establish the Mission San Francisco de Asís, the oldest still-standing structure in modern-day San Francisco, as they move control north from Mexico.
This Week in Revolutionary War History
By Sam Bishop