Key figures: George Washington, Nathanael Greene, Robert Magaw, William Howe, Wilhelm von Knyphausen, Hugh Percy
Summary
The Battle of Fort Washington, fought on November 16, 1776, was one of the worst defeats suffered by the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Fort Washington was a hastily built earthwork on the highest ground of northern Manhattan (present-day Washington Heights), the last American stronghold on the island after the withdrawal from White Plains. General William Howe demanded its surrender and, when refused, launched a coordinated assault by roughly 8,000 British and Hessian troops against a garrison of about 3,000 Continentals under Colonel Robert Magaw. Attacking in four columns, the British and Hessian forces overwhelmed the outer defenses and pinned the entire garrison inside the fort, which had no internal water supply and little protection from bombardment. With his position hopeless, Magaw surrendered in the late afternoon. Nearly 2,900 American soldiers were taken prisoner — a catastrophic loss of men, arms, and equipment that, together with the fall of Fort Lee four days later, forced Washington into a long retreat across New Jersey.
Strategic Context: The Last Fort on Manhattan
Fort Washington and its companion, Fort Lee, across the Hudson River in New Jersey, had been built to deny the river to British shipping. After the Battle of White Plains, Washington divided his army and crossed most of his troops into New Jersey, leaving Magaw’s garrison to hold Fort Washington. The decision to retain the fort was contested: Major General Nathanael Greene, who commanded in the area, urged that it could be held, while Washington was uncertain. Howe, meanwhile, had obtained detailed knowledge of the fort’s weak landward defenses — reportedly from an American deserter — and resolved to take it by storm.
Course of the Battle
On the morning of November 16, Howe’s assault force of roughly 8,000 men advanced against the fort’s outer lines from multiple directions:
- Hessians from the north under Lieutenant General Wilhelm von Knyphausen, attacking the most difficult, heavily wooded approach.
- A southern column under Lord Hugh Percy.
- An eastern column under Generals Edward Mathew and Charles Cornwallis, crossing the Harlem River.
- A feint by the 42nd Highlanders along the eastern shore, which developed into a genuine landing.
American defenders, fighting from rocky outworks, initially inflicted heavy losses on Knyphausen’s Hessians as they struggled up the steep northern slope. But the converging columns steadily compressed the defenders, and by early afternoon the outer lines had collapsed and the entire garrison was driven back into the fort itself. Crowded together, without water and exposed to artillery, the position was untenable. After Knyphausen’s troops reached the walls, Magaw accepted Howe’s renewed surrender demand, and the garrison laid down its arms at around three o’clock.
Casualties and Captivity
| Force | Killed | Wounded | Captured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Continental Army | ~59 | ~96 | ~2,837 |
| British/Hessian forces | ~84 | ~374 | — |
The Hessians, who bore the brunt of the assault, suffered the majority of the attackers’ casualties. For the Americans the disaster lay chiefly in the prisoners: nearly the entire garrison was marched into captivity in the prison ships and jails of British-held New York, where conditions were so severe that only a fraction survived to be exchanged. The fort yielded large quantities of cannon, muskets, and supplies the Continental Army could ill afford to lose.
Significance
- A crippling loss of manpower: The capture of nearly 2,900 trained soldiers, on top of the killed and wounded, gutted Washington’s already shrinking army at the close of the 1776 campaign.
- Collapse of the Hudson line: With Fort Washington gone, Fort Lee was indefensible; Washington abandoned it on November 20, leaving the lower Hudson entirely in British hands.
- The retreat across New Jersey: The twin losses forced the Continental Army into a demoralizing withdrawal across New Jersey toward the Delaware River — the low point of the war that immediately preceded Washington’s reversal of fortunes at the Battle of Trenton.
- A disputed decision: The choice to hold the fort, and Greene’s role in advising it, became one of the most scrutinized command controversies of the war and weighed heavily on Washington in the months that followed.