The Colonial Chronicle
All the Colonial News That's Fit to Print
November 16, 1776
The Battle that Ended in Disaster
By Nicholas Thanasias
   
    The Battle of Fort Washington was a disastrous one. Fort Washington as well as it's twin Fort Lee prohibited British ships from sailing up the Hudson river by creating a crossfire and bombardment. The battles before such as White Plains, Pell's point, Harlem Heights, and Long Island contributed to the strategic placement of this fort. As more and more English soldiers poured in from Britain, the Hudson river was needed to prevent the British ships from landing or transporting more men throughout New York. Specifically the battles of white plains and long island pushed  Washington and his army out of New York isolating and preventing Fort Washington as well as Fort Lee from support or supplies.

       Our great General George Washington was not able to command this battle to victory but instead we had brave colonels by the names of Mcgaw, Greene, Moses, Baxter, and Shee. Unfortunately, our enemies, the British had the General Lord William Howe but also a pestering Hessian payed for the fight by the name of Baron Wilhelm Knyphausen. With Fort Washington now considered in enemy territory Maj. Gen. Israel Putnam and Brig. Gen. Hugh Mercer tried to make an attempt to relieve the fort . This unfortunately failed but it gave the men inside the fort hope to try to push out to break through the enemy's lines. Even with the difficult mountainous terrain, barricades both on land and on the river, and both minimal snowfall & wind the British were to push the counterattacks back into the fort forcing the rebel patriots to surrender.
   
       The outcome of the battle at Fort Washington was a disaster. The Americans had lost most of the men occupying the fort while the British lost less then 500 men. With most of the patriots not being casualties of the actual battle but death below the decks of the prison ships at Wallabout Bay. This battle did although teach our men a valuable lesson. They gained experience fighting toe to toe with British regulars and bettering their defenses leaving nothing unsupervised on the battlefield.
  

American Casualties
 British/Hessian Casualties
Strength
 2,967
 8,000
Missing/Captured
 2,818
 ?
Wounded
 96
 374
Killed
 53
 78
Links to Research:
Click here to go to the British Battles web page about the battle of Fort Washington
Click here to go to the Washington Heights and Inwood Online web page about the site of Fort Washington
Click here to go to the History Central web page about an account of the battle in the journal of John Reubar, a Hessian soldier in the regiment of Col. Johann Rall
Click here to go to the My Revolutionary War web page for a date by date account of the battle of Fort Washington
Click here to go to Mr. Zaccagnino's web page
Click here to go to the Salesian High School web page