“This Week in 1776” is an ongoing almanac of events from that year in the American Revolution. Be sure to check out my novel HEARTLANDERS.
This is it: the last big engagement of October, and it ends in the spookiest way possible with an American loss.
General William Howe leads a force of over 7,500 Brits and Hessians into White Plains, New York, to fight George Washington and a ragtag group of just over 3,000 Patriots—a 2.5x advantage in manpower, and the Redcoats are either professional soldiers or skilled mercenaries. Keep in mind that the unpaid, hungry Americans have basically been on the move for two months after defeats in Manhattan, and morale has never been lower. One might even say that these times try men’s souls.
The fighting began on October 28th, when some American skirmishers met the Redcoats on approach to White Plains and tried to slow them down (this did not work.) They exchanged fire but had to retreat as the Reds advanced, and soon set upon the fortifications in town at Chatterton Hill.
The fortifications proved to be competent, but between sheer numbers and German doggedness, the Hessians were able to break through the right flank, and Howe’s men exploited the opening to press on the Americans. With Chatterton Hill failing, Washington ordered yet another retreat, with the 1st Delaware Regiment covering the militia’s butts on the way out.
The Americans racked up an almost equal amount of casualties (including wounded) as the Brits (217 Patriot versus 233 Red) but taken as a percentage, the Redcoats fared much better than the home team. The psychological defeat was more damaging, though; faith in the success of the Revolution was extremely low, and Washington had to convince the men that the war was not lost, even as the Patriots vacated their holdings in New York and New Jersey.
Meet Silas Proctor
In my 2019 novel Sleepless Hollow, the male lead character Silas Proctor is a veteran of the Revolutionary War; he died in 1776, spent the next two centuries haunting Sleepy Hollow, and was resurrected in 2020 as part of the story. The genesis of his character is tied directly to Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow, centered on a Dutch farming village with a famous local specter. In Irving’s tale, the Headless Horseman is described as a Hessian rider who lost his head to a cannonball in some skirmish during the Revolution, and rode out of the graveyard every night in search of it.
My novel features the Horseman, as well as the American soldier who fired that cannon: enter Proctor. Chapter 10 is called “The Man Who Killed the Horseman,” and since the whole book is now on YouTube, you can listen to that chapter if you like. The link above will start it right at chapter 10.
It was cool to research that part of his backstory; I wanted it to happen around Halloween, and near Sleepy Hollow, so the timing and location of White Plains happened to work perfectly. Despite being a spy first and foremost, Silas and his friends get caught up in the actual fighting in 1776, but they get separated from the main body of the army after Howe takes Chatterton Hill. What happens next…is in the book.
If you haven’t read Sleepless Hollow, hopefully this almanac project will help you understand what I love about American history, and the kind of ideas it gives me for my stories.
Pardon the indulgence. I’ve been looking forward to sharing this tidbit for a while.
Happy Halloween. Stay tuned for more action next week.
Visit Nauvoo Supply to order HEARTLANDERS, the most American novel I’ve ever written. It’s like if National Treasure happened during Fallout with G.I. Joes.
My Amazon page has my other books, including FOSSIL FORCE for young boys and Engines of Liberty for all ages.
I post several times per week on YouTube.
Subscribe here for more book reviews and for articles on what I continue to learn as I read.