The Battle of Pell’s Point, also known as the Battle of Pelham, was an important battle of the Revolution that doesn’t get the attention that so many others get, largely because of the When and Where of the battle, and the fact that it wasn’t a huge win or loss for either side.

What it did do, however, was provide some cover and distraction from the fact that Washington was still moving forces out of New York—that is, off of Manhattan Island—and onto the mainland, toward White Plains.

As noted yesterday, the British army’s original goal was to make this move inland yesterday, but the winds weren’t cooperating with their ships in Hell’s-Gate, so it was very slow going getting from Throgs Neck, which was little more than marshland and not even quite connected to the mainland, to Pell’s Point. There were 4000 British soldiers faced against about 750 Continental soldiers, but fortunately the Americans saw them coming and were ready for them despite being quite outnumbered.

In the end, this was technically a victory for the British but a tactical one for the Americans, since the battle gave Washington the cover he needed to finish moving troops out of Manhattan and up toward White Plains.

Yesterday I took my four-year-old grandson to the National Museum of Railroad History and Innovation (some people may remember it as the B&O Museum) in Baltimore, and that visit reminded me of the fact that when a train passes by, the things you most notice are the engine and the caboose. This may be why I’ve described so many battles as “important but overlooked”; they took place in the middle of things and don’t have some deep iconography attached to them (e.g. Washington crossing the Delaware before the Battle of Trenton). But they’re all part of the larger mosaic that makes up the story of the American Revolution.

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