Welcome to the
Wannaskan Almanac for Friday.
On this day in
1776 Fort Washington at the north tip of Manhattan fell to British and Hessian
soldiers. Poor General Washington! Imagine having a fort named after you only to
have it captured by your enemy a few month later and renamed Fort Knyphausen of
all things.
Washington had done well the previous March by ousting the British from Boston. Since then he and his army had suffered a series of losses. Most recently, he had been defeated at the battle of Long Island which was fought around Brooklyn. His army was almost trapped, but a storm gave him cover to evacuate his troops across the East River to Manhattan.
The British tried to box Washington in there too, but he was able to escape north to Fort Washington. New York is now a concrete jungle, but in 1776 it was a city of wood and brick, its 25,000 inhabitants concentrated at the southern end of the island. The rest of the island was heavily wooded with few roads.
Washington initially wanted to abandon the earthen fort, but its commander convinced Washington that with its cannons, it could withstand an attack. Unfortunately, his second in command deserted to the British and gave them valuable information about the fort.
On November 16, nine thousand British and Hessian troops overwhelmed the three thousand soldiers in the fort. Washington was watching the battle from outside the fort and wisely rowed across the Hudson to New Jersey where the bulk of his army was stationed. Since the Hessians did most of the fighting, their commander, Wilhelm von Knyphausen, was honored by having the fort renamed after him.
The nearly 3,000 American prisoners were held on British ship in the East River under terrible conditions. By the time of a prisoner exchange 18 months later, three quarters of them were dead. The British controlled New York City until the end of war seven long years later.
Fort Washington of course is gone now but Bennet Park marks the site and there's a granite monument. The whole area is called Washington Heights and the George Washington Bridge is within view. Losing the fort was one of many low points for Washington, but brighter days were ahead.
Interesting side note: When American artilleryman John Corbin was killed during the battle, his wife Margaret took over his cannon until she was severely wounded. She is the first known woman combatant in the Revolution. She is also the first woman to receive a military pension. Her grave is at West Point, though Margaret herself may not be in it.
Washington had done well the previous March by ousting the British from Boston. Since then he and his army had suffered a series of losses. Most recently, he had been defeated at the battle of Long Island which was fought around Brooklyn. His army was almost trapped, but a storm gave him cover to evacuate his troops across the East River to Manhattan.
The British tried to box Washington in there too, but he was able to escape north to Fort Washington. New York is now a concrete jungle, but in 1776 it was a city of wood and brick, its 25,000 inhabitants concentrated at the southern end of the island. The rest of the island was heavily wooded with few roads.
Washington initially wanted to abandon the earthen fort, but its commander convinced Washington that with its cannons, it could withstand an attack. Unfortunately, his second in command deserted to the British and gave them valuable information about the fort.
On November 16, nine thousand British and Hessian troops overwhelmed the three thousand soldiers in the fort. Washington was watching the battle from outside the fort and wisely rowed across the Hudson to New Jersey where the bulk of his army was stationed. Since the Hessians did most of the fighting, their commander, Wilhelm von Knyphausen, was honored by having the fort renamed after him.
The nearly 3,000 American prisoners were held on British ship in the East River under terrible conditions. By the time of a prisoner exchange 18 months later, three quarters of them were dead. The British controlled New York City until the end of war seven long years later.
Fort Washington of course is gone now but Bennet Park marks the site and there's a granite monument. The whole area is called Washington Heights and the George Washington Bridge is within view. Losing the fort was one of many low points for Washington, but brighter days were ahead.
Interesting side note: When American artilleryman John Corbin was killed during the battle, his wife Margaret took over his cannon until she was severely wounded. She is the first known woman combatant in the Revolution. She is also the first woman to receive a military pension. Her grave is at West Point, though Margaret herself may not be in it.
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| "I can do it." |
Who were the Hessians, I wondered. Well, no wonder the Brits won, the Hessian matrix or Hessian is a square matrix of second-order partial derivatives of a scalar-valued function, or scalar field. It describes the local curvature of a function of many variables. Of course! Dem Brits had a secret weapon! "Turn the Hessians loose!" they shouted through their bullhorns, and hordes of Hessians swept the field with their partial derivatives, mowing down Washington's poor men. They didn't stand a chance! The bastards!
ReplyDeleteWW always gets to da bottom of t'ings.
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