On the morning of August 3, 1776, the crews of the British warships Phoenix and Rose saw six American ships coming up the Hudson River toward them, along with a number of boats. It wasn’t likely that they were coming for a friendly chat, so the British prepared for action. These American ships were actually galleys — low, flat-built vessels that had both oars and sails — and were definitely less formidable than the British ships, but they were still a threat.
Ever since the Phoenix and Rose had made their way into the Hudson on July 12, they had spent most of their time in an area called the Tappan Zee. (Zee is the Dutch word for sea, and the Tappan Zee was a They had done some reconnaissance and a bit of raiding, but it seems to me that their biggest impact was to cause the American forces a lot of worry and headache. The Americans didn’t have a naval force on the Hudson, and it took them a while to get things ready for an attack.
At about 1:00 in the afternoon, the Americans came within range, and the attack began. “The Pheonix fired the first Gun which was return’d by the Lady Washington [one of the galleys] whose Shot went thro the Pheonix“, reported Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Tupper, who was in overall command of the American vessels. For the next couple hours, the opposing ships were firing constantly — at least, the British were. The Americans did their best, but one of their big guns (a 32-pounder aboard the Lady Washington) got cracked, and damage to the Washington (another of the galleys) was such that some of her guns were unusable. One American wrote:
Under these Circumstances, our Commodore, Colonel Tupper, thought it prudent to give the signal for our little Fleet to withdraw, after manfully fighting a much superior Force, for two Hours.—Never did Men behave with more firm determined Spirit than our little crews; one of our Tars [i.e., sailors] being mortally wounded, cried to his Messmates, “I am a dying Man, revenge my Blood, my Boys, and carry me along Side my Gun, that I may die there.” — We were so preserved by a Gracious Providence, that in all our Gallies (which consisted of Six), we had but two Men killed and Fourteen wounded; two of which are thought dangerous. — We hope to have [an]other touch at these Pirates before they leave our River, which God prosper.
Colonel Tupper wrote confidently that “we wish to give them another Drubing”, but the Americans had actually taken a worse drubbing than the British, in terms of both damage and casualties — and if the wind had been good, the British would have followed the retreating American galleys and inflicted much more damage. Understandably, the outcome of this little battle did not leave the British captains very worried. It was almost two more weeks before the Americans attacked again, and that time they took a different approach.