On this day 250 years ago at his headquarters on Manhattan (today called the Morris-Jumel Mansion), Gen. Washington met with his generals in a council of war. The council voted to begins the withdrawal from Manhattan to Westchester County, but Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene persuaded Washington and the council to leave a garrison of 1200 men in Fort Washington under the command of Col. Robert Magaw. It was the worst advice of Greene’s military career and a fateful decision that would cost the Continental Army dearly the next month.

On that same day, the American generals made a much wiser decision. Maj. Gen. William Heath wrote that the

General Officers of the army rode to recoinnoitre the ground at Pell’s Neck, & and it was determined that position of the American army should be immediately changed; the left flank to be extended more northerly, to prevent its being turned by the British.

That evening a few detachments of the Continental Army began moving northeast towards Pell’s Point. Gen. William Howe had belatedly determined at that same time that he had made an error in landing on Throg’s Neck and had decided to transport his army a few miles away to land at Pell’s Point.

Sources: “The Fight for New York”, George Washington’s Mount Vernon (Fall 2026) at 21; Schecter at 224-26; https://miniawi.blogspot.com/2011/10/october-16-1776.html