The British Fleet Arrives

Spencer Collection, The New York Public Library. “View of the Narrows between Long Island & Staaten Island with our fleet at anchor & Lord Howe coming in–taken from the height above the Waterg. Place Staaten Island. 12th July 1776” New York Public Library Digital Collections.

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. “The British fleet in the lower bay” New York Public Library Digital Collections.

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. “Henry Knox, 1750-1806.” New York Public Library Digital Collections.

The first part of the British invasion force, a flotilla of 130 ships carrying 9,000 soldiers, arrived off of Staten Island on 29 June 1776. More troops arrived, and by early August some 32,000 British troops had landed on Staten Island. The chief artillery officer in the Continental Army, Col. Henry Knox, described the panic that swept through the inhabitants of New York City with the arrival of the British fleet.

"The city in an uproar, the alarm guns firing, the troops repairing to their posts, and everything in the height of bustle. I not at liberty to attend her [Lucy], as my country cries loudest. My God, may I never experience the like feelings again! They were too much for a mortal."

Henry Knox, wrote to his brother William, June 29, 1776, from No.1

Sources

Knox, Henry. Letter to William Knox, June 29, 1776. MS. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, New York.

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