09/19/2026
🇺🇸 Road To Revolution. ��
Did you know that just one day after a devastating defeat at Kip’s Bay, the Continental Army rallied at Harlem Heights, turning retreat into victory?
This past week marks 250 years since those two dramatic days in September 1776.
On September 15, British and Hessian forces landed at Kip’s Bay on Manhattan under a devastating naval bombardment. American defenses collapsed, troops fled north, and George Washington struggled unsuccessfully to rally his men. By that evening, the Continental Army had retreated to Harlem Heights.
24 hours later, everything changed.
On the morning of September 16, British troops advanced toward the American position at Harlem Heights. This time, Washington’s forces stood their ground and counterattacked, ultimately forcing the British to retreat.
The Battle of Harlem Heights gave Washington his first battlefield victory of the war — and gave his battered army a desperately needed boost in morale.
Joseph Reed described the transformation simply:�“You can hardly conceive the change it has made in our Army.”
In the span of a single day, the Continental Army had gone from retreat at Kip’s Bay to victory at Harlem Heights — a remarkable reversal in the fight for New York.
To learn more about Joseph Reed and Southampton’s role in the fight for American independence, visit our new exhibition, Stephen Sayre’s American Revolution currently on view at the Southampton History Museum.
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🎨 Images:
The British landing at Kip's Bay, New York Island, 15 September 1776" (Created in 1777) by artist: Robert Cleveley, Courtesy Royal Museums Greenwich, London.
"Battle of Harlem" (Also known as the Battle of Harlem Heights) by James Charles Armytage, engraved after an original 1859 painting by Alonzo Chappel. Courtesy the New York Public Library (Emmet Collection).
