Patriots Unprepared at Fort Lee

Once Fort Washington fell on November 16, 1776, Washington’s army was still divided into three sections. General Charles Lee, second in command, remained at North Castle, New York, Westchester County, where the main army had withdrawn nine miles north after the Battle of White Plains. He had three divisions – his own and those of Generals Sullivan and Spencer, comprising two brigades each. Though Lee was reported to have 10,000 men in his command, in reality he had 5,500 effective troops – 4,000 were missing and reported absent or on other commands and 1,200 were on the sick list. General William Heath had four brigades stationed at Peekskill, New York, a little over 20 miles northwest of North Castle and on the Hudson River, about a dozen miles south of West Point. Technically, he was supposed to have had 5,400 under him, however, like Lee, absence and sickness left him with only 3,200 effective troops. Washington had the rest of the army of 5,400 men, however, 3,500 were posted with General Nathanael Greene at Fort Lee in New Jersey. Of those troops Greene had been sending over a substantial number to gradually reinforce Fort Washington from around 1,200 troops to nearly 2,900 on the Manhattan side of the Hudson River. When Fort Washington was captured, all those men were lost and imprisoned. This basically left about 2,000 men directly under Washington who shifted his immediate command to New Jersey to join what was left of Greene’s reduced force.