Opportunities Missed and Taken

Captain Champion wrote that he was surprised by the difficulties the troops surmounted on ground fortified by British art and industry. A night attack had undermined most of those defenses, and high winds kept the British navy from aiding the embattled redcoats. Lightballs, or flares, had been prepared, and a signal rocket was available to call reinforcements from the British garrison at Verplanck’s Point across the Hudson, but in the confusion of battle they were never used. The British had underestimated an enemy whose abilities as professional soldiers had improved with each campaign. The Continental Army carried out a well-coordinated night attack against a heavily fortified position and, except for the diversionary center column, fought with unloaded muskets and fixed bayonets, ironically as the British had when they attacked General Wayne’s forces at Paoli, Pennsylvania, on the night of September 21, 1777.

Stony Point, New York · United States