On this day 250 years ago in what is now the Bronx and Westchester County, New York, the Continental Army faced off against the British Army. General Washington commanded the Americans in the newly constructed Fort Independence and Valentine’s Hill and their backs against the Hudson with the British Army to the east stretching from Pell’s Point to New Rochelle against Long Island Sound. Washington ordered Col. Rufus Putnam to ride to the supply depot at White Plains in Westchester County and to scout how close the British Army had approached. Putnam later that reported that White Plains was guarded by only 300 militia but that the British advance outpost was already at Mamaroneck, only four miles south. That evening Washington wrote from near Fort Independence (in today’s Bronx) to Congressman Robert R. Livingston (who had left the Continental Congress to help run the government of New York State) to explain his plans to reposition the Continental Army to block the British from capturing White Plains and advancing to the Hudson:
Let me Intreat you my Dear Sir, to use your Influence to send, without delay, Provisions for this Army, towards the White Plains—upon a strict scrutiny, I find an alarming deficiency herein . . . —We want both Flour, & Beef; & I entreat your exertions to forward them. I must also entreat you to send us a Number of Teams the more the better to aid in removing the Army as occasion requires. We are amazingly distress’d on Acct of the want of them—We can move nothing for want of them—In short Sir, our Situation is really distressing.4 I have orderd Lord Sterling with upwards of 2000 Men to the White Plains to prevent the Enemys taking possession of it, & for security of Our Stores there; but the Troops were obliged to March without their Tents, or Baggage.
In order bring in more provisions for the Continental Army, that night Col. John Glover led his brigade with 15 wagons on a raid to retrieve “two hundred barrels of pork and flour” that had been left behind “at East Chester, if the enemy had not taken it off.” Glover later reported that his men “went down so nigh to the enemy we heard their musick and talk very plain” but they “brought it off whole” without firing a shot.
On this day 250 years ago, the stage was being set for a battle at White Plains. On this day in 2026, the stage is being set for a reenactment of the Battle of White Plains to commemorate its 250th anniversary.
Sources: Schecter at 232-33; O’Donnell, Indispensables at 272; https://w3r-us.org/event/2026-battle-of-white-plains-250th-ny/; https://www.brigade.org/whiteplains2026; https://www.visitwestchesterny.com/250/revfest-2026/; https://www.cityofwhiteplains.com/m/newsflash/home/detail/2230; https://america250.org/event/rev-fest-250/
