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 struggled with both supplies and personnel as he attempted to rally his demoralized men. As General William Howe landed thousands of men behind the American lines, Washington and the Continental Army began to pull back toward White Plains.
On October 18, 1776, the British, after being contained at Throgs Neck the prior week, sought an alternative landing location. General Howe had sent an advance guard of 4,000 men, led by General Henry Clinton, who landed further up the Long Island Sound at Pell’s Neck near the small village of Pelham in the Bronx.
The American colonel John Glover of Salem, Massachusetts, was atop a nearby hill with around 750 men and spotted the landing ships. Glover sent word to Major General Charles Lee, though upon receiving no orders, he himself gave the orders to attack the disembarking men. Though beginning as a skirmish between the Americans and a small portion of the British, eventually, the full might of the British and Hessian landers fell upon Glover. Following the 17th volley of bullets, Clinton’s men began to push the Americans back. The defenders fell back across Hutchinsons River, continuing to Yonkers, and were not pursued by the attackers, who set up camp along the river.
Though heavily disputed, the Americans reported eight killed in the fighting to the British report of three deaths. Varying reports of additional casualties put the British at losing between 200 and 1,000 additional men, although modern historians are unable to agree on an exact number. Many today point to the lower estimate, still vastly higher than Howe’s original assessment.
With the British push halted, the Americans continued to retreat from Manhattan and move to White Plains. This time, Washington struggled to send orders out through the army in a timely manner, recognizing his men in New York were now too decentralized for the prior system. In his General Orders for the day, he directed one Brigade Major from each division be tasked with hourly distributing orders to brigades “as fast as possible.”
On October 20, the first of the British “prison hulks” was commissioned in New York. The Whitby was anchored off Long Island and was being used as a prison for captured Americans, soon to be accompanied by many others in an armada of floating prisons, including the Falmouth, the Good Hope, the Hunter, the Jersey, the Prince of Wales, and the Stromboli.
On October 21, Washington continued to withdraw most of the army to White Plains, following various reconnaissance missions showing the British encroachment. In his General Orders that day, he wrote that he “hopes that every other part of the army will do their duty, with equal duty and zeal whenever called upon; and that neither dangers, difficulties, or hardships will discourage soldiers, engaged in the cause of liberty, and contending for all that freemen hold dear and valuable.” He also thanks Colonel Glover and his men for their commendable actions at Pelham a few days prior.
The next day, General Howe’s army in the Bronx is reinforced by 8,000 more men landing at New Rochelle. On October 23, Washington establishes a new headquarters in White Plains at the Elijah Miller House. Miller had served in the local militia before dying in August. His two sons, also enlisted, would die of fever by December. Here, Washington hurried to unload supplies and prepare defenses.
On October 24, Howe’s army, heavily outnumbering the Americans, moved closer, establishing camp at Scarsdale, about two miles south of White Plains.
This Week in Revolutionary War History
By Sam Bishop