THE GRAND RECONNAISSANCE
In 1781, in the American
Revolution, the British army controlled New York City and its
surrounding area, including all of today’s Bronx.
Another British army roamed throughout the South.
Washington’s rag-tag troops never really won a decisive battle
against the British, knocking them out. France, Britain’s ancient foe
and one of the strongest military powers in Europe, was allied to the
United States, but the French Foreign Minister, the Comte de Vergennes,
lost confidence and thought about making a separate peace.
A French army under the Comte de Rochambeau was in America under
orders to follow George Washington, who insisted that the French help
him recapture New York City. Rochambeau
urged Washington to try to capture the Lord Cornwallis’s British army
in Virginia, so the American commander wrote to the French admiral in
the West Indies to take his fleet to New York for the invasion, but, if
he could not make it, to go to Chesapeake Bay.
The French officers admired the American commander’s character
and attitude, but were shocked at American troops who had no uniforms,
some of whom were 14 year-old children, and with blacks
scattered through the line.
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George Washington
1775 portrait by
Rembrandt
Peale |
For his invasion of New York,
Washington needed information about the British fortifications by means
of a Grand Reconnaissance through today’s Bronx. On the night of July 21, 1781, 5,000 men in the combined
armies moved south to the Kingsbridge area. On July 22, they occupied
the ruins of Fort Independence and extended their lines eastward to the
Williams’ Bridge, where Gun Hill Road crosses the Bronx River today,
and southward to DeLancey’s Mill, at the southern end of today’s
Bronx Zoo. Then, the French and American cavalries scattered out in all
directions to try to capture and Tory troops, Americans fighting for the
British, and Hessians, German mercenaries hired by the British.
Washington obtained 19 year-old
Andrew W. Corsa, who lived where Fordham University is today, to guide
him to Morrisania. Both
commanders and the troops then went down what is today Third Avenue, and
then over a road that no longer exists to West Farms, then the road
parallel to the Bronx River to the Hunts Point area before turning
westward. There was a
skirmish at the Morris House, and the British ships and cannon on
Manhattan fired on the troops. Corsa
then took the army up the Brook Avenue valley to about where 161st
Street is today, then turned westward to the Grand Concourse ridge to
the area of the County Building. Washington made further observations there.
The party then proceeded up the Grand Concourse ridge, Corsa
leaving them about where Fordham Road is today.
The American army camped on the Riverdale ridge and in the
Broadway valley. Washington
slept at the Van Cortlandt House. The French camped on the Gun Hill, and Rochambeau lodged in
the Valentine-Varian House, which stands today on Bainbridge Avenue and
208th Street.
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| Van Cortlandt Park House
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On July 23, 1781, Washington and
Rochambeau and their engineers took the road that is roughly modern
Third Avenue to Tremont Avenue and then turned straight toward Throggs
Neck to find the distance between The Bronx and Queens.
On their way back, Westchester Creek was flooded.
The French stood amazed as the Americans drove their 90 horses
across the stream without tying them together for safety, as was the
French practice. With the
reconnaissance done, the two armies withdrew to Dobb’s Ferry.
Washington’s planned attack on
New York City never occurred. The
French fleet went to the Chesapeake and Cornwallis’s army was trapped
in Yorktown, Virginia. The Allies marched there and won the war. But the
Bronx reconnaissance convinced the British that an invasion of New York
was immanent, and they did not send reinforcements to Cornwallis.
It also showed the French that Americans reacted well under fire
and were resourceful. With
doubts changed to trust, the idea of a separate French peace ended.
And it all happened in The Bronx.
Reprinted with the permission of The
Bronx Historian On-line
Answers from page C-3
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1. "E"
2. A Keyboard
3. Time
4. Math Puzzle |
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