Battle of Harlem Heights The Battle of Harlem Heights was fought during the New York and New Jersey campaign of the American Revolutionary War . The action took place in what is now the Morningside Heights and west Harlem neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City on September 16 , 1776 . The Continental Army , under Commander - in - Chief General George Washington , Major General Nathanael Greene , and Major General Israel Putnam , totaling around 1 , 800 men , held a series of high ground positions in upper Manhattan against an attacking British division totaling around 5 , 000 men under the command of Major General Alexander Leslie . British troops made a tactical error by having their light infantry buglers sound a fox hunting call , " gone away , " while in pursuit . This was intended to insult Washington , himself a keen fox hunter , having learned the sport from Lord Fairfax during the French and Indian War . " Gone away " means that a fox is in full flight from the hounds on its trail . The Continentals , who were in orderly retreat , were infuriated by this and galvanized to hold their ground . After flanking the British attackers , the Americans slowly pushed the British back . After the British withdrawal , Washington had his troops end the pursuit . The battle went a long way to restoring the confidence of the Continental Army after suffering several defeats . It was Washington ' s first battlefield victory of the war . After a month without any major fighting between the armies , Washington was forced to withdraw his army to White Plains when the British moved into Westchester County and threatened to trap Washington in Manhattan . Washington suffered two more defeats , at White Plains and Fort Washington . After these two defeats , Washington and the army retreated across New Jersey to Pennsylvania . The New York and New Jersey campaign ended after the American victories at Trenton and Princeton . Background . On August 27 , 1776 , British troops under the command of General William Howe flanked and defeated the American army at the Battle of Long Island . Howe moved his forces and pinned the Americans down at Brooklyn Heights , with the East River to the American rear . On the night of August 29 , General George Washington , Commander - in - Chief of the Continental Army , evacuated his entire army of 9 , 000 men and their equipment across the water to Manhattan . On September 15 , Howe landed his army at Kip ' s Bay , Manhattan . After a bombardment of the American positions on the shore , 4 , 000 British and Hessian troops landed at Battle of Kip ' s Bay . The American troops began to flee at the sight of the enemy , and even with Washington ' s arrival on the scene they refused to obey orders and continued to flee . After scattering the Americans at Kip ' s Bay , Howe landed 9 , 000 more troops , but did not cut off the American retreat from New York City . Washington had all of his troops in the City on their way to Harlem Heights by 4 : 00 pm and they all reached the Heights by nightfall . Battle . On the morning of September 16 , Washington received word that the British were advancing . Washington , who had been expecting an attack , sent a reconnoiter ing party of 150 men under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Knowlton to probe the British lines . At daybreak , Knowlton ' s troops were spotted by the picket s of the British light infantry . The British sent two or three companies to attack the enemy . For more than half an hour the skirmish continued , with fighting in the woods between two farmfields . When Knowlton realized that the numerically superior British forces were trying to turn his flank , he ordered a retreat . The retreat was organized and conducted with no confusion or loss of life . The British quickly pursued the Americans and were reinforced with the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of Light Infantry , along with the 42nd Highlanders . During the retreat , the British light troops played their bugle horns signaling a fox hunt , which infuriated the Americans . Colonel Joseph Reed , who had accompanied Knowlton , rode to Washington to tell him what was going on and encouraged him to reinforce the rangers . Instead of retreating , Washington , in what Edward G . Lengel calls " an early glimmer of the courage and resolve that would rally the Continentals from many a tight spot later on " , devised a plan to entrap the British light troops . Washington would have some troops make a feint , in order to draw the British into a hollow way , and then send a detachment of troops around to trap the British inside . The feint party was composed of 150 volunteers who ran into the hollow way and began to engage the British . After the British were in the hollow way , the 150 volunteers were reinforced by 900 more men . All of the troops were stationed too far away from one another to do much damage . The flanking party consisted of Knowlton ' s Rangers , which had been reinforced by three companies of riflemen , in total about 200 men . As they approached , an officer accidentally misled the men , and the firing broke out on the British flank , not their rear . The British troops , realizing that they had almost been surrounded , retreated to a field , where there was a fence . The Americans soon pursued and , during the attack , Knowlton was killed . Despite this , the American troops pushed on ; driving the British troops beyond the fence to the top of a hill . When they reached the hill , the British forces received reinforcements ; including some artillery . For two hours , the British troops held their ground at the top of the hill until the Americans once again forced them to retreat into a buckwheat field . Washington was originally reluctant to pursue the British troops , but after seeing that his men were slowly pushing the British back , he sent in reinforcements and permitted the troops to engage in a direct attack . By the time that all of the reinforcements arrived , nearly 1 , 800 Americans were engaged in the buckwheat field . To direct the battle , members of Washington ' s staff , including Nathanael Greene , were sent in . By this time , the British troops had also been reinforced ; bringing their strength up to about 5 , 000 men . For an hour - and - a - half , the battle continued in the field and in the surrounding hills until , " having fired away their ammunition " , the British withdrew . The Americans kept up a close pursuit until it was heard that British reserves were coming , and Washington , fearing a British trap , ordered a withdrawal . Upon hearing Washington ' s orders to withdraw , the troops gave a loud " huzzah " and left the field in good order . Aftermath . The British casualties were officially reported by General Howe at 14 killed and 78 wounded . However , a member of Howe ' s staff wrote in his diary that the loss was 14 killed and 154 wounded . David McCullough gives much higher figures of 90 killed and 300 wounded . The Americans had about 30 killed and 100 wounded , including among the dead Lieutenant Colonel Knowlton and Major Andrew Leitch . The American victory raised morale in the ranks , even among those who had not been engaged . It also marked the first victory of the war for the army directly under George Washington ' s command . There was little fighting for the next month of the campaign , but Washington moved his army to White Plains in October after hearing that the British were attempting to trap him on Manhattan . After being defeated at the Battle of White Plains and later at Fort Washington , Washington and his army retreated across New Jersey , pursued by the British , into Pennsylvania . The loss of Knowlton was a blow to the fledgling American intelligence operations , as he had created and led the first such unit of the Continental Army , at the direction of Washington .