New York/New Jersey Campaign

In the summer of 1776, General George Washington moved his forces from Boston to New York City, expecting British forces to arrive in the bastion city. Correct in his assumptions, British soldiers led by William Howe, Sir Henry Clinton, Lord Cornwallis, and Lord Richard Howe arrived at Staten Island on July 2, 1776. In the following months, the two armies fought each other in the surrounding New York City region until the winter of 1776-1777. By December of 1776, Washington was encamped across the Delaware River in Pennsylvania and launched a surprise attack on the Hessian auxiliaries at the Battle of Trenton and subsequently at the Battle of Princeton. The campaign ended on January 6, 1777, with a new-found boosted Continental morale and the British armies taking New York City and using it as a base of operations.