1776
1776 New York Campaign
A01=David Price
Adrian Hoaglandt
Alexander Leslie
Ambrose Serle
American Military Intelligence
American Revolution
Andrew Leitch
Ashbel Woodward
Ashford
Author_David Price
Battle of Harlem Heights
Black Watch
British Army
Brown Bess Musket
Category=NHK
Category=NHTV
Category=WQH
Connecticut
Continental Army
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Father of American Military Intelligence
George Washington
Harlem
Harlem Heights
Harman Vandewater
Hell Gate
Henry Clinton
Hessians
Hollow Way
Horn's Hook
Inclenberg
John Trumbull
Joseph Plumb Martin
Joseph Reed
Kip's Bay
Knowlton Award
Knowlton's Rangers
Manhattan Island
Mary Murray
Morris House
Nathan Hale
Nathanael Greene
New York City
New York in the American Revolution
Nicholas Jones
Robert Rogers
September 16
Tench Tilghman
Thomas Knowlton
U.S. Army's First Victory
William Howe
Product details
- ISBN 9781594163944
- Weight: 426g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 06 Jan 2023
- Publisher: Westholme Publishing, U.S.
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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The Battle of Harlem Heights is an underappreciated milestone in American military history. The engagement on upper Manhattan Island on September 16, 1776, was the first successful battle for George Washington’s troops in the quest for independence from Great Britain and presaged the emergence of an effective fighting force among the citizen-soldiers who made up the Continental Army. The cooperative effort of regiments from New England, Maryland, and Virginia—whose men lacked any sense of national identity before the Revolution—indicated the potential for this fledgling army to cohere around a common national purpose and affiliation and become the primary instrument for securing America’s right to self-rule.
The action began when a contingent of rangers led by Col. Thomas Knowlton of Connecticut encountered British light infantry while conducting a reconnaissance mission on Washington’s orders. What began as a skirmish transformed into a full-fledged battle as both sides reinforced, and a heavy engagement continued for several hours until, with ammunition running low, the British withdrew. Washington decided not to pursue and risk confrontation with a larger force, thereby keeping his army intact. In The Battle of Harlem Heights, 1776, David Price conveys the significance of the Continental Army’s first victory and highlights the role of one of its key participants, the largely forgotten Knowlton—the “father of American military intelligence”—who gave his life during the action while urging his rangers forward. No matter how many times U.S. Army troops have recorded a battlefield success over the past two and a half centuries—whether on American soil, in a European wood, across a Middle Eastern desert, or on a Pacific island—one thing about that history remains indisputable. They did it first at Harlem Heights.
Small Battles: Military History as Local History
Mark Edward Lender and James Kirby Martin, Series Editors
Small Battles offers a fresh and important new perspective on the story of America’s early conflicts. It was the small battles, not the clash of major armies, that truly defined the fighting during the colonial wars, the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the hostilities on the frontiers. This is dramatic military history as seen through the prism of local history—history with a depth of detail, a feeling for place, people, and the impact of battle and its consequences that the story of major battles often cannot convey. The Small Battles series focuses on America’s military conflicts at their most intimate and revealing level.
The action began when a contingent of rangers led by Col. Thomas Knowlton of Connecticut encountered British light infantry while conducting a reconnaissance mission on Washington’s orders. What began as a skirmish transformed into a full-fledged battle as both sides reinforced, and a heavy engagement continued for several hours until, with ammunition running low, the British withdrew. Washington decided not to pursue and risk confrontation with a larger force, thereby keeping his army intact. In The Battle of Harlem Heights, 1776, David Price conveys the significance of the Continental Army’s first victory and highlights the role of one of its key participants, the largely forgotten Knowlton—the “father of American military intelligence”—who gave his life during the action while urging his rangers forward. No matter how many times U.S. Army troops have recorded a battlefield success over the past two and a half centuries—whether on American soil, in a European wood, across a Middle Eastern desert, or on a Pacific island—one thing about that history remains indisputable. They did it first at Harlem Heights.
Small Battles: Military History as Local History
Mark Edward Lender and James Kirby Martin, Series Editors
Small Battles offers a fresh and important new perspective on the story of America’s early conflicts. It was the small battles, not the clash of major armies, that truly defined the fighting during the colonial wars, the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the hostilities on the frontiers. This is dramatic military history as seen through the prism of local history—history with a depth of detail, a feeling for place, people, and the impact of battle and its consequences that the story of major battles often cannot convey. The Small Battles series focuses on America’s military conflicts at their most intimate and revealing level.
David Price is the author of a trilogy about the “Ten Crucial Days” of the American Revolution—John Haslet’s World: An Ardent Patriot, the Delaware Blues, and the Spirit of 1776;The Road to Assunpink Creek: Liberty’s Desperate Hour and the Ten Crucial Days of the American Revolution; and Rescuing the Revolution: Unsung Patriot Heroes and the Ten Crucial Days of America’s War for Independence. He is a historical interpreter at Washington Crossing Historic Park in Pennsylvania and Princeton Battlefield State Park in New Jersey, and holds degrees in political science from Drew University and Rutgers University. He lives in Lawrence Township, New Jersey.
