Battle of Pell's Point

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American Revolutionary War
Northern Campaign
Contemporary map of the battle.

The Battle of Pell's Point , also known as the Battle of Pelham , took place on October 18, 1776 during the American Revolutionary War on what is now Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx , New York . Measured in terms of casualties, the battle between the 4,000 British-Hessian and 750 American soldiers was a skirmish . However, it allowed the American commander-in-chief to move George Washington 's main part of his army to White Plains without it being enclosed in Manhattan .

On October 12, 1776, British and allied Hessian units under the command of British General William Howe tried to land in Throgs Neck in order to be able to enclose the main part of the American units on the island of Manhattan by means of a flank maneuver. The Americans prevented the attempt to land on the narrow headland and the British looked for a more suitable landing site along the Long Island Sound . They found this place further north at Pelham . The 4,000 Hessians and British met a brigade of 750 soldiers from the Continental Army under the command of Colonel John Glover. Glover set up several lines of defense. From under cover, the defenders fired at the attacking British and Hessians. As soon as an American line could no longer be held, the Americans withdrew to the nearest cover line and reorganized the resistance. After several attacks without any notable success, the British and Hessians stopped their attacks and the Americans withdrew. The American side mourned 8 dead and 13 wounded, while the British put their losses at 3 dead and 20 injured. The British loss figures were deliberately concealed and Hessian losses were mostly not listed at all. However, it can be assumed that the numbers of British and Hessian dead and injured were significantly higher than admitted.

After the lost battles of White Plains and Fort Washington , the American army had to withdraw from New Jersey to Pennsylvania .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c McCullough, p. 232.
  2. ^ Ward, p. 255.
  3. ↑ Billias, S. 120th

credentials

  • William Abbatt: The Battle of Pell's Point . University of California, New York 1901.
  • George Athan Billias: General John Glover and his Marblehead Mariners . Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York 1960.
  • David McCullough: 1776 . Simon and Schuster Paperback, New York 2006, ISBN 0-7432-2672-0 .
  • Christopher Ward: The War of the Revolution, Volume 1 . The Macmillan Company, New York 1952.