The Battle of Harlem Heights amounted to little more than a series of skirmishes that had no conclusive result. The fighting began early in the morning when the revolutionaries sent 120 Connecticut rangers under Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Knowlton on a reconnaissance south from the defensive position on Harlem Heights on the northern end of Manhattan Island. Near Jones’s Farm around modern 106th Street and the Hudson River, Knowlton stumbled into some British light infantry and Scottish Highlanders advancing to probe the revolutionary lines. An intense firefight ensued before Knowlton decided to withdraw. The British soldiers pursued the revolutionaries, blowing horns as if it were a fox hunt. After Knowlton returned to the first defensive line, George Washington decided to take advantage of the overly hasty British advance. He ordered about 150 men to move forward and feign an attack as Knowlton, reenforced to about 250 men, moved around the British right to envelop the enemy. Unfortunately, the British discovered the maneuver before it was complete and began to withdraw. Simultaneously, more British reinforcements were sent forward. The revolutionaries also added men into the battle, but Washington sought to avoid a full engagement. The day’s fighting ended about three o’clock in the afternoon in an exchange of fire at Jones’s Farm again, and both armies pulled back to their main bodies. The revolutionaries lost about 30 killed, including Knowlton, and had 100 wounded. The British suffered 14 dead and 157 wounded. However, occurring the day after the ignominious retreat of Washington’s army from New York City, the fact that the Continental army fought the British to a draw came as a tremendous boost to morale.
Further reading: Barnet Schecter, The Battle for New York: The City at the Heart of the American Revolution (New York: Walker & Company, 2002).
World History
