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

Today episode 109 the Great Fire of New York and Nathan Hale.

By September 1776, the Continental Army held on to Harlem Heights at the northern tip of

Manhattan and Fort Washington along the Hudson River.

The British controlled the remainder of the island.

General Lord Percy, who you may remember from his dramatic rescue of the British Army at Lexington, commanded

a force posted just north of the city on the east side of the island.

General Cornwallis, who had sailed to America only to fail miserably under

General Clinton at Fort Sullivan in South Carolina, still served under General

Clinton.

After his success at the Battle of Long Island,

Hal posted both generals with the command of the front lines just south of Harlem Heights,

but with strict instructions to stay put and not advance on the enemy. General Howe settled himself into a comfortable estate at Mount Pleasant, north of Kips Bay, but still well back from the front lines.

There he wrote dispatches to Lord Germain and others in London about the successful

campaign to capture New York.

Once again following his victory, Hal would pause for several weeks giving the enemy time

to regroup and plan their next steps. On September 19th, 1776, General Howe issued another decree to the public urging the American people to return to their old allegiance to the king and bring all this violence to an end.

The proclamation got relatively little attention since only a few loyalist newspapers in New York and New Jersey published it.

Some Americans in the region who are now under direct occupation of the British Army swore

allegiance, but mostly because any Patriots living in those areas had already fled.

The House somehow seemed convinced that they could get the Patriots to lay down their

arms without a long and terrible bloodletting.

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