Battle of Fort Washington The Battle of Fort Washington was fought in New York on November 16 , 1776 during the American Revolutionary War between the United States and Great Britain . It was a decisive British victory that gained the surrender of the entire garrison of Fort Washington near the north end of Manhattan Island . After defeating the Continental Army under Commander - in - Chief General George Washington at the Battle of White Plains , the British Army forces under the command of Lieutenant General William Howe planned to capture Fort Washington , the last American stronghold on Manhattan . General Washington issued a discretionary order to General Nathanael Greene to abandon the fort and remove its garrison of 3 , 000 men to New Jersey . Colonel Robert Magaw , commanding the fort , declined to abandon it as he believed it could be defended from the British . Howe ' s forces attacked the fort before Washington reached it to assess the situation . Howe launched his attack on November 16 . He led an assault from three sides : the north , east and south . Tides in the Harlem River prevented some troops from landing and delayed attack . When the British moved against the defenses , the southern and western American defenses fell quickly . Patriot forces on the north side offered stiff resistance to the Hessian attack , but they too were eventually overwhelmed . With the fort surrounded by land and sea , Colonel Magaw chose to surrender . A total of 59 Americans were killed and 2 , 837 were taken as prisoners of war . After this defeat , most of Washington ' s army was chased across New Jersey and into Pennsylvania , and the British consolidated their control of New York and eastern New Jersey . Background . Construction and defenses . During the American Revolutionary War , Fort Washington was located at the highest point of the island of Manhattan , along a large outcropping of Manhattan schist near its northernmost tip . Along with Fort Lee , located just across the Hudson River atop the New Jersey Palisades , the twin forts were intended to protect the lower Hudson from British warships . In June 1776 , American Patriot officers Henry Knox , Nathanael Greene , William Heath , and Israel Putnam examined the terrain on which Fort Washington would be located ; they agreed that if the fort was properly fortified , it would be practically impossible to take . Later in June , the Commander - in - Chief of the Continental Army , George Washington , inspected the location and determined that the area was the key to defense of the lower Hudson . Shortly after Washington ' s survey , troops from Pennsylvania began construction on the fort under the supervision of Rufus Putnam . They first prepared a " cheval de frise " to prevent British ships from sailing up the Hudson and outflanking the American position . For more than a month , the troops transported boulders from the heights of Manhattan to the edge of the river , where they loaded them into a collection of hulks and cribs made of timber and stretched it across the river . When the cheval de frise was finished , they began work on the fort . Little soil covered the rocky surface , so men had to haul soil up from the low ground . They were unable to dig the customary ditches or trenches around the fort . The fort was built in the shape of a pentagon with five bastion s . The main walls were made of earth , constructed with ravelin s with openings for guns from every angle . The fort enclosed a total of three to four acres . The troops built an abbattis around the fort . After the barracks were finished in September , all the troops in the area were placed under the command of Major General William Heath . Washington established his headquarters near the fort . Supporting the fort were numerous defenses . Batteries were placed on Jeffrey ' s Hook , which extended into the Hudson , on Cox ' s Hill looking over Spuyten Duyvil Creek , at the north end of Manhattan controlling the King ' s Bridge and Dyckman ' s Bridge over the Harlem River and along Laurel Hill which was to the east of the Fort and went along the Harlem River ( see also " Fort Tryon Park " ) . To the south of the fort were three lines of defense . The lines went through the hills and were made of trenches and foxholes . The first line was supported by a second line about 0 . 33 mi ( 0 . 5 km ) to the north , and a third line was planned to be built 0 . 25 mi ( 0 . 4 km ) north of the second . Movements . British General William Howe , after first gaining control of western Long Island in the Battle of Long Island at the end of August 1776 , launched an invasion of Manhattan on September 15 . His northward progress was checked the next day in the Battle of Harlem Heights , after which he sought to flank the strong American position on the north of the island . After an abortive landing attempt on October 11 , Howe began landing troops in southern Westchester County , New York on October 18 , intending to cut off the Continental Army ' s avenue of retreat . Washington , aware of the danger , withdrew most of his troops north to White Plains . He left a garrison of 1 , 200 men at Fort Washington under the command of Colonel Robert Magaw ; this force was inadequate to fully defend the extensive works . In order to monitor the American garrison in the fort , Howe left Hugh Percy and a small force below Harlem Heights . On the morning of October 27 , sentries informed Magaw that Percy ' s troops were launching an attack supported by two frigates sailing up the Hudson . Magaw ordered an attack on the frigates , and both British ships were badly damaged by the guns from Fort Lee and Fort Washington . The frigates could not elevate their own guns to the height of the American positions . The British towed away the frigates , but an artillery duel continued for some time between British and American gunners . On November 8 , about two dozen American soldiers drove off a slightly larger Hessian company from a forward redoubt . The Hessians held higher ground with better cover and had the advantage of artillery support throughout this minor skirmish , but were still unable to maintain their position . The Colonials had a single man wounded while the Hessians lost at least two men killed and others wounded . After burning and looting the temporary structures on the site , the victors occupied it until dark when they returned to their main lines . By the next day the Hessians had reoccupied the spot but were quickly driven off again by a larger American force . This time the Hessians left ten dead with , again , a single American wounded . Because of these minor success , Magaw became overconfident ; he boasted of being able to hold the fort through a siege to the end of December . On November 2 , Magaw ' s adjutant , William Demont , deserted to the British ; he gave them all of the details of the fort . Percy sent the information on to Howe , who had defeated Washington a few days earlier at the Battle of White Plains . During the weeks between Washington ' s northward retreat and the British assault on the fort , reinforcements continued to trickle into the fort , increasing the size of the garrison to nearly 3 , 000 men . Plans and preparations . Washington had considered abandoning Fort Washington , but he was swayed by Nathanael Greene , who believed that the fort could be held and that it was vital to do so . Greene argued that holding the fort would keep open communications across the river and might dissuade the British from attacking New Jersey . Magaw and Putnam concurred with Greene . Washington deferred to Greene and did not abandon the fort . On November 4 , Howe ordered his army south toward Dobbs Ferry . Rather than pursue the American forces in the highlands , and possibly prompted by the intelligence acquired by the defection of Demont , Howe had decided to attack Fort Washington . Washington responded by dividing his army . Seven thousand troops were to remain east of the Hudson under the command of Charles Lee to prevent a British invasion of New England ; General William Heath with 3 , 000 men was to guard the Hudson Highlands to prevent any further British advance north , and Washington with 2 , 000 men was to go to Fort Lee . On the 13th , Washington and his army reached Fort Lee . Howe ' s plan of attack was to storm the fort from three directions while a fourth force feint ed ; by then it had received reinforcements and was garrisoned by 3 , 000 men . Hessian troops under the command of Wilhelm von Knyphausen would attack the fort from the north , Percy was to lead a brigade of Hessians and several British battalions from the south , and Lord Cornwallis with the 33rd Regiment of Foot and General Edward Mathew with the light infantry were to attack from the east . The feint was to be by the 42nd Highlanders , who were to land on the east side of Manhattan , south of the fort . Before attacking , Howe sent Lieutenant Colonel James Patterson under a flag of truce on November 15 to deliver a message that if the fort did not surrender , the entire garrison would be killed . Magaw said the Patriots would defend the fort to the " last extremity " . Battle . Initial fighting . Before dawn on November 16 , the British and Hessian troops moved out . Knyphausen and his troops were ferried across the Harlem River on flatboats and landed on Manhattan . The flatboatmen then turned down the river to ferry Mathew ' s troops across the river . However , due to the tide , they were unable to get close enough to the shore to bring the British troops across . Thus , Knyphausen ' s troops were forced to halt their advance and wait until Mathew could cross . Around 7 : 00 a . m . , Hessian guns opened fire on the American battery on Laurel Hill , and the British frigate " Pearl " began to fire at the American entrenchments . Also , south of the Fort , Percy had his artillery open fire on the fort itself . Percy ' s artillery aimed at Magaw ' s guns which had damaged the British ships several week before . By noon , Knyphausen and his Hessians restarted their advance . As soon as the tide was high enough , Mathew and his troops , accompanied by Howe , were ferried across the Harlem River . They landed under heavy fire from the American artillery on the Manhattan shore . The British troops charged up the hillside and dispersed the Americans until they reached a redoubt defended by some Pennsylvania Volunteer companies . After brief fighting , the Americans turned and ran towards the fort . To the north of the fort , the Hessian right , commanded by Johann Rall , moved up the steep hillside south of Spuyten Duyvil Creek against almost no resistance from the Americans . The Hessians began to bring up their artillery . At this point , the main body of Hessians , 4 , 000 men , under Knyphausen began to advance down the Post Road , which ran between Laurel Hill and the hill Rall was on . The Hessians crossed swampy land and when they approached the wooded hillside near the fort , they were fired upon by 250 riflemen of the Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment under the command of Lt . Col . Moses Rawlings . Rawlings ' men hid behind rocks and trees and darted from place to place to shoot at the Hessians as they tried to advance through the fallen trees and rocks . The first and second charges by the Hessians were repulsed by Rawlings ' riflemen . Around the same time , to the south , Percy advanced with some 3 , 000 men . Percy advanced in two columns with his brigade of Hessians on the left and Percy himself leading the right . About 200 yards from the American lines Percy halted the advance , waiting for the feint by Stirling to take place . Facing Percy was Alexander Graydon and his company . Graydon ' s superior was Lambert Cadwalader , Magaw ' s second in command , who was in charge of holding the three defensive lines south of Fort Washington . After hearing that there was a landing on the shore in his rear , Cadwalader sent 50 men to oppose it . The 50 men ran into the feint by Col . Stirling ' s 42nd Foot of 800 men . Where Stirling landed happened to be the least defended area of the American defenses , and when Cadwalader heard how many men were there , he sent another 100 men to reinforce the 50 he had sent earlier . The British landing parties spread out , looking for a path through the rough terrain on the landing spot . The Americans took up a position on a hilltop and began firing at the British troops who were still crossing the river , killing or wounding 80 men . The British troops charged the American position , dispersing them . Upon hearing the shooting , Percy ordered his troops to continue their advance . British artillery fire forced Graydon in the first defensive line to fall back to the second line , where Washington , Greene , Putnam and Hugh Mercer were located . The four were encouraged to leave Manhattan , which they did immediately , sailing across the river to Fort Lee . Magaw realized that Cadwalader was in danger of being surrounded and sent orders for him to withdraw toward the fort . Cadwalader ' s force was pursued by Percy ' s troops at the same time the troops opposing Stirling ' s landing were also being chased back to the fort . Stirling ' s troops , landed in the rear of Cadwalader , paused , believing that there were troops in the entrenchments . Some of the retreating Americans engaged Stirling , giving most of the rest of the American troops enough time to escape . Collapse . With the collapse of Magaw ' s outer lines to the south and east of the fort , the general American retreat towards the perceived safety of the fort took place . To the south , the third defensive line had never been completed so Cadwalader had nothing left to retreat to except the fort . To the north , the riflemen under Rawlings still held , but barely , as there were fewer riflemen than before and because the increased amount of firing had jammed some of the men ' s weapons , some of the men were forced to push boulders down the hill at the attacking Hessians . The American battery at Fort Washington was silenced by " Pearl " . By this time , the riflemen ' s fire had almost ceased , and the Hessians slowly advanced up the hill and engaged the Americans in hand - to - hand fighting . Overpowering the Americans , the Hessians reached the top of the hill and swarmed into the redoubt with a bayonet charge , capturing it quickly . Washington , who was watching the battle from the other side of the river , sent a note to Magaw asking him to hold out until nightfall , thinking that the troops could be evacuated during the night . By this time , the Hessians had taken the ground between the fort and the Hudson River . Johann Rall was given the honor of requesting the American surrender by Knyphausen . Rall sent Captain Hohenstein , who spoke English and French , under a flag of truce to call for the fort ' s surrender . Hohenstein met with Cadwalader , and Cadwalader requested that Magaw be given four hours to consult with his officers . Hohenstein denied the request and gave the Americans a half hour to decide . As Magaw was consulting with his officers , Washington ' s messenger , Captain John Gooch arrived , just before the fort was completely surrounded , with Washington ' s request to hold out until nightfall . Magaw attempted to get easier terms for his men , who would only be allowed to keep their belongings , but this failed . Magaw announced his decision to capitulate at 3 : 00 pm , and at 4 : 00 pm , the American flag was brought down in the fort , replaced by the British flag . Before the surrender , John Gooch leaped off the side of the fort , tumbled to the bottom of the cliff , evaded musket fire and bayonet stabs , and managed to get onto a boat and arrived at Fort Lee a short while later . Aftermath . After the Hessians entered the fort , the American officers attempted to placate the Hessian commander , Captain von Malmburg , who was in charge of the surrender . They invited him into their barracks , and offered him punch , wine , cake , with compliments . As they left the fort , the Hessians stripped the American troops of their baggage and beat some of them . Their officers intervened to prevent further injuries or deaths . The British captured thirty - four cannon , two howitzers , along with many tents , blankets , tools and much ammunition . The British and Hessians suffered 84 killed and 374 wounded . The Americans lost 59 killed , had 96 wounded casualties , and 2 , 838 men captured . Due to infectious disease and prison conditions , only 800 survived their captivity to be released 18 months later in a prisoner exchange ; nearly three - quarters of the prisoners died . Three days after the fall of Fort Washington , the Patriots abandoned Fort Lee . Washington and the army retreated through New Jersey and crossed the Delaware River into Pennsylvania northwest of Trenton , pursued as far as New Brunswick , New Jersey by British forces . After about one month , on the night of December 25 – 26 , 1776 , Washington crossed the Delaware and defeated the Hessian garrison under the command of Rall at Trenton . Washington went on to defeat the British next at Princeton , which revived the morale of the American army and the colonies affected by the fall of Fort Washington . After seven years , on November 25 , 1783 , with the peace treaty signed , General Washington and Governor George Clinton triumphantly reclaimed Fort Washington as they marched toward lower Manhattan after the last British forces had left New York . The site of Fort Washington is now in Bennett Park in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan , just north of the George Washington Bridge . The location of its walls are demarcated by stones placed in the park , and there is a commemorative plaque .