LOWER HUDSON

White Plains Battlefield

https://whiteplainshistory.github.io/

https://www.cityofwhiteplains.com/facilities/facility/details/Battle-of-White-Plains-Park-33

60 Park Avenue White Plains, NY

Hours: For information or to plan a tour, call the Purdy House run by the White Plains Historical Society

Phone: (914) 328-1776 Email: [email protected]

 

Historical Description:

During the Battle of White Plains, George Washington's Army checked General William Howe's British Army after fleeing Harlem Heights on Manhattan Island. The main battle took place between Brigadier General Alexander McDougall's brigade and British and Hessian troops on Chatterton's Hill. The massed fire of twelve British cannons, the British attack, and the flight of militiamen from Massachusetts forced the New Yorkers, Marylanders, and Delawares off the hill. Total American casualties were about 150 officers and men killed and wounded. While the British claimed the field of battle, they and their Hessian allies may have lost as many as 313 officers and men killed and wounded. When Howe turned from Dobbs Ferry back toward New York City on 12 November to invest Fort Washington, he abandoned an aggressive strategy that might have destroyed Washington's army and cost the Americans New York and New England.

 

The Site:

The City of White Plains interprets the Battle of White Plains at Battle-Whitney Park (Chatterton's Hill) with signs and a flagpole. There are two surviving houses that General Washington used as his headquarters during the Battle of White Plains in 1776. The first is the Miller House Museum that Elijah Miller built in 1738, with an addition in 1770, as a typical Rhode Island-style farmhouse, located at 140 Virgina Road, North White Plains, NY. Washington was here between October 28-November 10, 1776. It is owned and operated by the Washington's Headquarters Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The Miller House Museum is open by appointment, and can be reached at (914) 428-1005, or see https://parks.westchestergov.com/historic-sites/the-miller-house for more information. The second is the Jacob Purdy House that Washington occupied from October 23-28 and also used again from July 27-September 16, 1778, in preparation for a possible assault on British forces in New York.

 

Research Patron: Atwood Collins