Battle of Fort Washington

Battle context

The fall of Fort Washington on November 16, 1776, delivered one of the heaviest single-engagement losses the Continental cause sustained during the war. A garrison of roughly 3,000 American troops faced a British force of 8,000; the resulting surrender produced American casualties of 2,837, effectively eliminating the defending force. The loss stripped Patriots of their last fixed position on Manhattan and left the Hudson River corridor more exposed to British control. Coming in the autumn of 1776, a period already marked by Continental reverses around New York, the defeat compounded pressure on Washington's command and raised urgent questions about the wisdom of holding fortified positions against superior British numbers. The battle stands as a marker of how badly the campaign for New York had gone for the American side by late 1776.