A GRAND DAY FOR A RIDE OUT

During the American War of Independence, Staten Island in New York was seen as a bastion of loyalist sentiment. The British forces stationed there offered a credible threat to Continental Army, supply sources and to local patriot militias. Prior to 1779, a series of raids by both sides had achieved little other than to polarize local support for each side.

By Eoghan Kelly

In 1779, the main unit stationed on Staten Island was the Queen's Rangers also known as Simcoe's Rangers by 1777, in honour of their new commander Lieutenant-Colonel John Graves Simcoe. In October of 1779, Simcoe had received information that the Continental forces were assembling a force of 50 flat bottomed boats for an invasion force. The boats were reportedly at the upper reaches of the Raritan River, to the immediate west of Staten Island. Simcoe devised a plan involving a lightly equipped force of 78 hussars of the Queen's Rangers, the red-coated Buck's Country Light Dragoons, and Staten Island provincial dragoons. They would land on the north side of the Raritan estuary, ride to Bound Bridge and burn the boats. They then would cross the river southward, and head east to…

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Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy (Digital) - 1 Issue, WSS 127

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