Battle of South Yonkers – January 1777

[ndembowski]

On this night in 1777, 3,000 patriot militiamen under General William Heath descended on Kingsbridge to attack the British garrison here (which was mostly guarded by German Hessian soldiers).  On the following day would you believe this force fired cannonballs on Marble Hill from Kingsbridge Heights?

Washington had initially ordered the attack after the battle of Princeton in order to draw the British away from southern New Jersey.  However, he became more optimistic that this attack would result in retaking New York City from the British.  Needless to say, it did not quite turn out that way.  But it did result in over a week of fighting in our area that took place in Spuyten Duyvil, Marble Hill, Kingsbridge, and Norwood.

For those interested in the American Revolution, I cannot recommend Founders Online highly enough as a great source of primary source material.  Click here to see Washington’s orders to General Heath in the lead up to this battle.  Type “Kingsbridge” into the search bar for some interesting reading.

General Heath’s memoir has a day-by-day description of the attack that you can read here (starting at the bottom of the page).

This is a map that I made that shows what the neighborhood looked like during the war.

 

[Author]

Posts