Battle of Stony Point

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Most important, Anthony Wayne was a fighter. Washington described him as more active and enterprising than judicious and cautious. Assigned the task of shadowing a strong enemy column in September 1777, Wayne pugnaciously camped so close to the foe that he fell victim to a counterstroke by bayonet-wielding British Regulars in what became widely reported (and exaggerated for propaganda purposes by both sides) as the Paoli Massacre. Some nine months later, at Monmouth, it was Wayne’s aggressive troop handling that put the Continental Army in peril and that paradoxically saved it, as he deftly staved off crushing pressure from superior forces until the Americans could rally to hold the field.

Following a fall and winter defending his decisions and angling unsuccessfully for a promotion to major general, Wayne took a leave of absence to return to the family homestead at Waynesborough. He was there, chafing at the inaction, when a note arrived from Washington summoning him to come at once to the lower Hudson Valley. Now for the field of Mars, Wayne wrote. I believe that sanguine god is rather thirsty for human gore.

Although it is seldom mentioned with an importance equaling other regions of the conflict, the lower Hudson was a constant source of concern for Washington and an inviting avenue of opportunity for his opponents. The importance of the Hudson River in the present Contest, and the necessity of defending it, are Subjects which have been so frequently and fully discussed, and are so well understood, that it is unnecessary to enlarge upon them, declared Washington. Even when a major British army was not moving southward from Canada to link with forces advancing up the river from New York, the stretch of the Hudson between the port city and West Point seethed with military activity throughout the war.

The spring of 1779 presented the officer commanding British forces in America with some difficult choices. An old enemy, France, had entered the war on the side of the colonists. The strategic planners in faraway London, meanwhile, had concluded that the ever-elusive victory in America would now be found in its southern tier. A significant part of British Commander in Chief Lt. Gen. Sir Henry Clinton’s responsibilities became apportioning enough troops and other resources to support a southern campaign while simultaneously utilizing his powerful New York base to keep the northern region under threat.

That the rebel General Washington and his army remained close to New York was not lost on Clinton, nor on those in London, where Lord George Germain, the British secretary of state for the American colonies, was monitoring events and offering a steady stream of advice. In a dispatch dated January 23, 1779, Germain observed: It is most earnestly wished that you may be able to bring Mr. Washington to a general and decisive action at the opening of the Campaign; but if that cannot be effected it is imagined that with an army of about 12,000 Men in the field under your immediate Command, you may force him to seek for safety in the Highlands of New York or the Jerseys, and leave the Inhabitants of the open Country at liberty to follow what the Commissioners represent to be their inclinations and renounce the authority of the Congress, and return to their allegiance to His Majesty.

Germain’s instructions, often weeks if not longer in reaching New York, ranked high among Clinton’s vexations. With a diplomacy tinged with irritation, the commander in chief answered Germain’s missive on May 14: It shall be my endeavor to draw Washington forward before he is Reinforced, by indirect Manouvres, and if he gives in to my views no efforts shall be wanting to strike at him whilst he is in motion; but if he persists in keeping his present post I must not flatter myself that it will be easy to gain any advantage over him or to carry into effect, as I certainly should wish to do, the measures which your Lordship appears to recommend.

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Tags: 17th - 18th Century, American Revolutionary War, Historical Conflicts