Battle of Harlem Heights

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The Battle of Harlem Heights was fought on September 16, 1776, in the Harlem Heights, Manhattan, during the New York and New Jersey campaign of the American Revolutionary War. A force of just under 1,800 American troops under General George Washington engaged a force of just under 1,600 British troops under Brigadier-general Alexander Leslie. An early morning skirmish between a patrol of Knowlton's Rangers and pickets of Leslie's light infantry brigade developed into a running fight as the British pursued the Americans back through woods towards Washington's position on the Harlem Heights. The overconfident British light infantry advanced too far from their lines without support and exposed themselves to an American counterattack. Seeing this, Washington ordered a flanking maneuver which failed to cut off the British force but, in the face of this attack and facing pressure from American troops arriving from Harlem Heights, the outnumbered British retreated. Meeting reinforcements coming...

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