New York and New Jersey campaign
The New York and New Jersey campaign in 1776 and the winter months of 1777 was a series of American Revolutionary War battles for control of the Port of New York and the state of New Jersey, fought between British forces under General Sir William Howe and the Continental Army under General George Washington. Howe was successful in driving Washington out of New York, but overextended his reach into New Jersey, and ended the New York and New Jersey campaign in January 1777 with only a few outposts near New York City under British control. The British held New York Harbor for the rest of the Revolutionary War, using it as a base for expeditions against other targets. Landing unopposed on Staten Island on July 3, 1776, Howe had assembled an army that included components that had withdrawn from Boston in March following the British failure to hold that city, combined with additional British troops, and Hessian troops hired from several German principalities. Washington's Continental Army included New England soldiers and regiments from the Thirteen Colonies as far south as the Colony of Virginia. Landing on Long Island in August, Howe defeated Washington in the largest battle of the war in North America, but the Continental Army was able to regroup and make an orderly and covert retreat to Manhattan that night under a cover of darkness and fog. Washington suffered a series of further defeats in Manhattan but prevailed in a skirmish at the Battle of Harlem Heights and eventually withdrew his troops successfully to White Plains, New York. Howe, meanwhile, returned to Manhattan and captured those forces Washington had left on the island. Washington and much of his army crossed the Hudson River to Rockland County and then south into New Jersey, retreated across the state, and then crossed the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. Along the way, his army shrunk due to the ending of enlistment periods, desertions, and poor morale. Howe ordered his troops into winter quarters in December, establishing a chain of outposts from New York City to Burlington, New Jersey. Washington, in a tremendous boost to American morale, launched a successful strike against the Trenton garrison on the morning of December 26, 1776, prompting Howe to withdraw his chain of outposts back to New Brunswick and the coast near New York. Washington, in turn, established his winter camp at Morristown. During the following winter months and through the rest of the war, both sides skirmished frequently around New York City and New Jersey as the British sought forage and provisions. Britain maintained control of New York City and some of the surrounding territory until the war ended in 1783, using it as a base for operations elsewhere in North America. In 1777, General Howe launched a campaign to capture the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia, leaving General Sir Henry Clinton in command of the New York area, while General John Burgoyne led an attempt to gain control of the Hudson River valley, moving south from Quebec