Tag: Sandy Hook

Two Ships, Six Men, and a Cow

The American defenders of New York had spent a lot of time fortifying and preparing against a British attack. There were trenches and artillery emplacements along the shoreline, and even obstacles in the river to keep ships from sailing up it. But on July 12, 1776, the Royal Navy showed that the Americans couldn’t even stop a couple of British warships. And although the only thing killed by British fire that day was a cow, six American artillerymen were killed from their own carelessness in handling their cannon.

The British warships Phoenix and Rose forced their way up the Hudson River despite the Americans’ best efforts to stop them. It’s a bit hard to see, but all the clouds of smoke in the background are from American cannon shooting at the ships. This picture was made by Captain Archibald Robertson, a British army engineer, from a viewpoint on Staten Island.

That afternoon, the Phoenix, which had 44 guns, and the Rose, which had 20, sailed up the Hudson River with a couple of tenders (small vessels that often accompanied the larger ships). The American artillery blazed away at them and inflicted some damage, but couldn’t stop them, and the obstacles in the river turned out to not be a problem for them. American lieutenant Isaac Bangs described it in his journal:

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