You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. Hello and thank you for joining the American Revolution.

This week episode 242 raids around New York.

A few weeks ago I talked about the Continental Army

settling into winter quarters at Morristown,

New Jersey over the winter of 1779, 1780.

It was a brutally cold and snowy winter, made so much worse by the fact that the Army had

no food or clothing and felt abandoned by the civilians for whom they were supposedly fighting.

Despite the weather and deprivations, the Army did attempt a few raids and had to defend against a few British raids over that winter.

One of the reasons that the British Army had traditionally felt protected in New York City

was that it was almost completely surrounded by water, and the Americans would not really challenge the British Navy's control of those waters.

The harsh winter changed that dynamic. Fridget weather froze over New York Harbor, requiring ships to move out to salt water that did not freeze over.

The ice also provided a way for armies to simply march across that water.

In January the

Continental's did just that. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by a

narrow waterway known as Arthur Kill, which by the way the name is a bastardization of

Achterkill, Dutch for Back Channel. Because Staten Island was so close to

American occupied New Jersey and separated by even more water from the main British force on Manhattan,

the island provided a tempting target for the Americans.

General Sullivan had launched a massive raid on the island in 1777, but ran into trouble

evacuating his men from the island after the British counterattacked. For more on that, see episode 153.

In early 1780, the concerns about crossing the waterway disappeared

when the Arthur Kill turned into a solid sheet of ice that could support both horses and cannon.

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