Battle of Throgs Point Archives - 250 and Counting

The Battle of Throgs Neck, or Throg’s Point, or a number of other names, was part of a move intended to trap Washington’s forces through flanking them from the north while Washington concentrated on the troops already in front of him on Manhattan Island.

Washington did anticipate that this might happen, and sent American troops that way, but part of the problem that he had was that there were so many possibilities, and he just couldn’t cover them all. So he took a little gamble in sending his numbers to different places and hoping it would be enough.

In the case of Throgs Neck, it was 4000 British troops against 750 Americans, but they handled it in a clever way. They managed to contain the British advance by taking advantage of the local geography, forcing the British to retreat. But this only meant that they’d regroup and try again somewhere else. This led to the Battle of Pell’s Point, of which this battle is usually considered a part, or just a prelude.

As Mike will explain to you in a few days, the Battle of Pell’s Point is technically a British victory, but it also had a separate function that breaks well for the American side.

The post Battle of Throgs Neck–October 12, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

It took a month to figure it out, but the British ship movement up the Hudson River was a sign that they’d finally decided how they were going to implement their plans.

Rather than concentrating on New York City, which was going to be problematic because George Washington’s troops were pretty dug in over in Harlem Heights, Admiral Howe made the choice that ran closer to the original plan: start sending warships up the Hudson and establish a new foothold in the Pelham area of what we now call the Bronx. This could then become a base of operations for moving further up the Hudson Valley and make it very difficult, if not impossible, for materiel and information to pass between New England and the rest of the states. And since New York had a pretty sizeable chunk of Loyalists there, the downstate area should be fairly easy pickings.

So the British ship movement came as a surprise to nobody on the American side; what probably did come as a surprise was that it wasn’t as difficult to get through as they probably hoped they’d made it.

Washington and his War Council did plan for this possibility and there will be troops waiting when the British make their landing. We’ll talk about that in a few days.

The post The British Finally Make Their Move–October 9, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

There are several names for the battle about to happen here, depending on how you view the geography; Battle of Throgs Neck, Battle of Throgs Point, Battle of Pells Point and believe it or not that isn’t even half of the total names given to this one conflict.

After George Washington’s successful defense of Harlem Heights, which was a good place to be from a defensive standpoint, the Continental and British armies were basically in a stalemate for a few weeks.

The Americans were under the impression that the British would either attack Fort Washington, or make a flanking move through the Long Island Sound. Washington’s Council of War finally tried to guard against both possibilities (because this worked out so well when the British invaded Long Island…ugh). Ten thousand men remained to defend Harlem Heights and Fort Washington, while General William Heath took five thousand troops to the far side of the Hudson, near Fort Constitution and modern-day West Point.

Ultimately General Howe chose a flanking maneuver but came in at a point much further south than Fort Constitution. In just a few days we’ll see how the confrontation works out.

The post How Best To Invade New York?–October 8, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.