Teacher Resources
Fort Lee
Inquiry Question
How do leaders decide when advice from trusted subordinates conflicts? What factors should outweigh others?
Primary Sources
What Teachers and Students Use
Washington's Correspondence on the Fall of Fort Lee and Fort Washington, November 1776
PRIMARY · Library of Congress, George Washington Papers
5 analysis prompts
Lord Cornwallis's Report on the Surprise Crossing at Fort Lee, November 20, 1776
PRIMARY · UK National Archives, War Office Papers
5 analysis prompts
The American Crisis, No. 1 -- Written During the Retreat from Fort Lee
PRIMARY · Philadelphia (Thomas Paine)
5 analysis prompts
1776
SECONDARY · Simon & Schuster (David McCullough)
5 analysis prompts
Fort Lee Historic Park: State Historic Site Documentation
INSTITUTIONAL · New Jersey State Park Service
5 analysis prompts
Downloads
Ready to Print
Student packet, teacher guide with answer key, and quiz — each formatted for classroom printing.
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Lesson Plan
In the Classroom
Learning Objectives
- 1Identify the chain of decisions leading to the fall of Forts Washington and Lee in November 1776
- 2Analyze how Washington and Greene processed conflicting intelligence and recommendations
- 3Evaluate how Greene's Fort Washington mistake shaped his subsequent command philosophy
- 4Apply a structured decision-making framework to a historical military scenario
Explore Further
Fort Lee in the Knowledge Graph
The lesson packet draws from these pages. Use them to extend the lesson or give students primary source context.
Comparative Study
Connected Towns
The corroborate prompts in the student packet point to these towns. Teachers can assign cross-town comparisons.
Hackensack
GEOGRAPHIC PROXIMITY
Washington's army retreated directly from Fort Lee to Hackensack on November 20, 1776, the first leg of the desperate march across New Jersey. The two towns are linked by the retreat route itself and by the shared Bergen County theater of operations.
New York City
SHARED EVENT
Fort Lee fell as part of the British campaign that captured New York.
White Plains
SHARED EVENT
Both were defeats in the New York campaign of 1776.
Assessment
Fort Lee in the American Revolution
Answer the following questions based on our study of Revolutionary history. · 5 questions · Answer key in Teacher Guide PDF
What makes Fort Lee significant in Revolutionary history?
multiple choice
Primary sources are documents or objects created during the time period being studied.
true false
Name one event that occurred in Fort Lee during the Revolutionary period and explain its significance.
short answer
+ 2 more in the full quiz PDF
Ready to Print?
All three documents below — student packet, teacher guide, and quiz — are formatted for letter-size classroom printing.