NJ, USA
The Worst Week of the War
About Nathanael Greene
Nathanael Greene stood on the Palisades and watched Fort Washington fall. From the New Jersey cliffs, he could see the British and Hessian columns closing in from three sides. He could hear the firing. He could not do anything about it.
Greene had recommended holding Fort Washington. He had argued that the position was defensible, that the garrison could be evacuated by boat if necessary, that abandoning the fort would surrender control of the upper Hudson. Washington had listened to Greene's argument and, against his own instincts, agreed.
Now nearly three thousand men were being marched into captivity. Many of them would die on British prison ships in Wallabout Bay, crowded into rotting hulks where disease killed more men than the British army ever did. Greene bore the weight of their fate for the rest of his life.
Four days later, Cornwallis came up the Palisades. Greene had at most an hour's warning. There was no time to save the cannon, no time to pack the tents, no time to load the wagons. He saved the men. Two thousand soldiers walked away from Fort Lee with whatever they were carrying and started the long retreat across New Jersey.
It was, by any measure, a catastrophe. The twin forts were gone. The army was shrinking by the day. Enlistments were expiring. The British seemed unstoppable. Thomas Paine was there, watching, and what he saw became the opening of "The American Crisis": these are the times that try men's souls.
But Greene learned. The general who had insisted on holding Fort Washington became the general who knew when to let go. In the Southern campaign four years later, Greene would fight a war of movement and strategic retreat that exhausted Cornwallis and won the war. The lesson of Fort Lee — save the army, sacrifice everything else — became his operating principle.
The irony is almost too neat: the man who learned the hardest lesson of 1776 on the Palisades of New Jersey was the man who used that lesson to break Cornwallis in the Carolinas.
Sources
Primary & Secondary Sources
1776
Simon & Schuster (David McCullough) · SECONDARY · TIER1
Narrative history covering the fall of Fort Washington and Fort Lee in detail. McCullough's account of the catastrophic garrison losses at Fort Washington and the frantic evacuation of Fort Lee is the most accessible scholarly narrative.
Fort Lee Historic Park: State Historic Site Documentation
New Jersey State Park Service · INSTITUTIONAL · TIER1
State park documentation for the Fort Lee site on the Palisades. Includes archaeological survey results identifying the fort's earthworks and artifact distributions from the 1776 occupation.
Lord Cornwallis's Report on the Surprise Crossing at Fort Lee, November 20, 1776
UK National Archives, War Office Papers · PRIMARY · TIER1
Cornwallis's official dispatch on the dawn crossing of the Hudson at Closter Landing and the seizure of Fort Lee. Documents one of the most audacious British amphibious operations of the war.
The American Crisis, No. 1 -- Written During the Retreat from Fort Lee
Philadelphia (Thomas Paine) · PRIMARY · TIER1
Paine wrote the first Crisis pamphlet while retreating with Washington's army from Fort Lee through New Jersey. The document is a direct literary product of the Fort Lee disaster and the crisis it represented.
Washington's Correspondence on the Fall of Fort Lee and Fort Washington, November 1776
Library of Congress, George Washington Papers · PRIMARY · TIER1
Updated from GW Papers collection URL to specific Founders Online document
Bergen County Historical Society: Revolutionary War Collections
Bergen County Historical Society · INSTITUTIONAL · TIER2
Local historical society with manuscript collections documenting the British occupation of Bergen County (including Fort Lee's immediate hinterland) and the Loyalist-patriot conflict throughout the war.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/forts-washington-and-lee
www.battlefields.org · SECONDARY · TIER2
Discovered by agentic enrichment for Fort Lee
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/battles/fort-lee
www.battlefields.org · SECONDARY · TIER2
Discovered by agentic enrichment for Fort Lee
https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/fort-lee-new-jersey
www.encyclopedia.com · SECONDARY · TIER2
Discovered by agentic enrichment for Fort Lee
Nathanael Greene's Report on the Loss of Fort Washington and Evacuation of Fort Lee
Rhode Island Historical Society, Greene Papers · PRIMARY · TIER2
Greene's report to Washington on the fall of Fort Washington, for whose defense he had personally advocated. The document reveals the command disagreement and the devastating loss of 2,800 men that precipitated the New Jersey retreat.
Official Register of the Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War
William T. Nicholson (William S. Stryker) · SECONDARY · TIER2
Comprehensive state roster documenting New Jersey soldiers who served during the 1776 retreat. Essential for identifying specific units and individuals at Fort Lee and during the subsequent flight to Pennsylvania.
The Battle for New York: The City at the Heart of the American Revolution
Walker & Company (Barnet Schecter) · SECONDARY · TIER2
Detailed military history covering the fall of Fort Washington and Fort Lee in the context of the broader New York Campaign. Draws on British and Hessian archives alongside American sources.
Fort Lee Historic Park Visitor Information
New Jersey State Park Service · TERTIARY · TIER3
Visitor-facing materials for the Fort Lee Historic Park on the Palisades. Provides accessible interpretive summary and practical site access information.
Fort Lee, New Jersey -- Revolutionary War History (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia · TERTIARY · TIER3
General reference entry covering Fort Lee's history and the 1776 battle. Useful for orientation.