On this day 250 years ago in New York, 80 British vessels transported 4000 British and Hessian troops from Kip’s Bay on Manhattan Island through the dangerous whirlpools and tides of Hell Gate on the East River into the opening of Long Island Sound. Only one boat sank in the transit with the loss of 4 British artillerymen and 3 six-pounder cannon. The British landed on the Throg’s Neck peninsula in Westchester County (now part of the Bronx), and proceeded to march inland on the narrow peninsula. However the peninsula was guarded by a detachment of rifleman from Col. Edward Hand’s Regiment who had pulled up the planks from a bridge and erected a barricade on the causeway off the marshy peninsula. Col. Hand’s small detachment of riflemen was able to delay the British advance until reinforcements arrived and by the end of the day 1800 Americans with artillery had bottled up the 4000 British troops on Throg’s Neck where they would remain stuck for the next six days. The British command did not report their casualties and claimed that the delay was to rebuild a bridge destroyed by the rebels, but one British officer recorded in his diary that “I am of opinion there must be some other obstacle to prevent the Army from advancing than the destruction of a single bridge.”

The Americans suffered few if any casualties except civilians wounded and a church bell cracked by British shelling of the village of Westchester. Although small, the Battle of Throg’s Neck was a clear victory for the Continental Army and an embarrassing defeat for the British.

Sources: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/battle-pells-point; Schecter at pp. 222-23; Mackenzie Diary at pp. 77 & 80 accessed at https://archive.org/details/diaryoffrederick21ptunse/page/80/mode/2up