On this day 250 years ago at his headquarters in White Plains, New York, Gen. George Washington ordered part of the Continental Army to cross the Hudson River into New Jersey to defend against the anticipated British invasion of that state. Washington also wrote Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene with reasons why Fort Washington on Manhattan Island should be abandoned. In what would prove to be his worst decision as commander of the Continental Army, Washington did not follow his own wise counsel but instead left it to Greene whether to evacuate the fort:
The late passage of the 3 Vessells up the North River (which we have just received Advice of) is so plain a proof of the inefficacy of all the Obstructions we have thrown into it that I cannot but think it will fully justify a Change in the Disposition which has been made. If we cannot prevent Vessells passing up, and the Enemy are possessed of the surrounding Country, what valuable purpose can it answer to attempt to hold a post from which the expected Benefit cannot be had—I am therefore inclined to think it will not be prudent to hazard the Men & Stores at Mount Washington, but as you are on the Spot, leave it to you to give such Orders as to evacuating Mount Washington as you judge best
Sources: “George Washington to Major General Nathanael Greene, 8 November 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-07-02-0078. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 7, 21 October 1776–5 January 1777, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1997, pp. 115–117.]; https://allthingsliberty.com/2020/07/the-fall-of-fort-washington-the-bunker-hill-effect/
Also on this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Board of War of the Continental Congress wrote to Gen. Washington asking for his help in obtaining the release of Mrs. Elizabeth Annesley Lewis from British captivity in New York. Elizabeth Lewis was the wife of Francis Lewis, one of the delegates from New York in the Continental Congress and a Signer of the Declaration of Independence. The British had destroyed the Lewis home in what is now Queens and seized Mrs. Lewis after the Battle of Brooklyn. Elizabeth Lewis would remain in British captivity under harsh conditions without adequate clothing and food until 1779 when she was finally exchanged while in poor health. She died shortly after being released.
Sources: “Board of War to George Washington, 8 November 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-07-02-0077. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 7, 21 October 1776–5 January 1777, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1997, pp. 114–115.]; https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/francis-lewis-founding-father/; https://www.revolutionary-war.net/francis-lewis/
On this day 250 years later we should all remember Mrs. Elizabeth Lewis’s sacrifice and consider that the wives of our Founding Fathers often paid a higher price for American Liberty than did their husbands.
And on that day in Annapolis, the Ninth Provincial Convention of Maryland adopted the first “Constitution and Form of Government” for the State.
Sources: https://archive.org/details/proceedingsofcon00mary/page/348/mode/2up;
