35 / 64
Times That Try Men’s Souls
35
or spot of ground,” he noted, “but in preserving a good army . . . to take
advantage of favorable opportunities, and waste and defeat the enemy
by piecemeal.”
On September 16, a retreating American unit grew furious when British
buglers played a foxhunting call. The Americans turned on their pursuers
and eventually drove them back in the Battle of HarlemHeights. But that
small victory was followed by a defeat at the Battle of White Plains on
October 28. Three weeks later, an ill-advised decision by a young Ameri-
can general, Nathanael Greene, led to disaster. Greene sought to hold a
fort overlooking the Hudson River. When Fort Washington was overrun
on November 16, the British took more than 2,800 Americans prisoner.
Hopes Dimming
“I am wearied almost to death,” a discouraged George Washington wrote
to his brother. Washington began a retreat southward across New Jersey.
This French illustration from 1776 shows the city of New York in flames after the British
Army captured the city in September of that year. British officers believed that Patriots
had deliberately started the fire, which damaged or destroyed a large area of the city.
American_Rev_Interior_7.indd 35
1/7/15 9:37 PM