Grand Forage 1778: The Battleground Around New York City

by Todd W. Braisted

After two years of defeats and reverses, 1778 had been a year of success for George Washington and the Continental Army. France had entered the war as the ally of the United States, the British had evacuated Philadelphia, and the redcoats had been fought to a standstill at the Battle of Monmouth. While the combined French-American effort to capture Newport was unsuccessful, it lead to intelligence from British-held New York that indicated a massive troop movement was imminent. British officers were selling their horses and laying in supplies for their men. Scores of empty naval transports were arriving in the city. British commissioners from London were offering peace, granting a redress of every grievance expressed in 1775. Spies repeatedly reported conversations of officers talking of leaving. To George Washington, and many others, it appeared the British would evacuate New York City, and the Revolutionary War might be nearing a successful conclusion.

Then, on September 23, 1778, six thousand British troops erupted into neighboring Bergen County, New Jersey, followed the next day by three thousand others surging northward into Westchester County, New York. Washington now faced a British Army stronger than Burgoyne’s at Saratoga the previous year. What, in the face of all intelligence to the contrary, had changed with the British?


Through period letters, reports, newspapers, journals, pension applications, and other manuscripts from archives in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Germany, the complete picture of Britain’s last great push around New York City can now be told. The strategic situation of Britain’s tenuous hold in America is intermixed with the tactical views of the soldiers in the field and the local inhabitants, who only saw events through their narrow vantage points.

This is the first publication to properly narrate the events of this period as one campaign. Grand Forage 1778: The Battleground Around New York City by historian Todd W. Braisted explores the battles, skirmishes, and maneuvers that left George Washington and Sir Henry Clinton playing a deadly game of chess in the lower Hudson Valley as a prelude to the British invasion of the Southern colonies.

Genres: History, American Revolution, American Revolutionary War, American History

223 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2016

About the author

Todd W. Braisted is an author and independent researcher on the American Revolution, specializing in Loyalist studies. He is a Fellow in the Company of Military Historians, a past-president of the Bergen County Historical Society and the Brigade of the American Revolution. He currently serves as a history advisor to both New Jersey’s Crossroads of the American Revolution and the Revolution New Jersey Advisory Council as well as the South Carolina American Revolution Sestercentennial Commission and other organizations.

Reviews

[Joseph Ficklen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about the last major offensive effort by the British in the Northern theater of the AWI. Offers several great what-ifs; what if d’Estaing’s fleet had arrived off New York sooner? What if the French and the Americans had captured Newport? What if Washington had accepted battle during the Grand Forage? 1778 after Monmouth was a critical period in which the fortunes of the war were genuinely in the balance, whereas afterwards the Northern theater was mired in stalemate edging towards an almost inevitable American victory by attrition.

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Grand Forage refers to the skirmishes that took place during the American Revolution for food, supplies, and general harassment. A lot of these conflicts took place in Central New Jersey (only about 50 miles outside New York City) and I had hoped I could find out more information about them, but they weren't mentioned in this book. To give the author the benefit of the doubt, the New Jersey skirmishes may have happened in 1777, but I was disappointed.

[Jeri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a highly readable, but quite in depth view of the battles in New York after General Clinton became the leader of the British forces. Yes, there was foraging. But there was also Simcoe and Grey, Pulanski and Baylor. And who do we see quoted again? Joseph Plumb Martin! He was like Where's Waldo for the Revolutionary War!

[Roy Draa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent study on British Army Operations by an excellent historian.

[Chris Kostenko · Rating 4 out of 5]

This local history is the logical tale that an army travels on its stomach. As general Clinton prepares to send large forces to the West Indies to attack french holdings he prepares for the campaigns by foraging the areas around New York. Washington's army is watching, from a distance, and trying to figure out what Clinton is up to.
Although there were no large battles there were skirmishes and lives were lost. The author is an ex president of the Bergen County Historical Society, honorary vice-president of the United Empire Loyalist Association of Canada, and a Fellow of the Company of Military Historians.
When I finished the book I began to investigate his biography. A website from the BC Historical Society was credited with one of the tales, an evening attack by the British on a Patriot encampment. Before attacking the British commander took the flint from his men's weapons (any spark is therefore an enemy) and attacked a sleeping force in a bayonet charge. No prisoners were taken.