Battle of Fort Slongo

On October 3, 1781, Continental Army troops led by Benjamin Tallmadge and Lemuel Trescott clashed with British defenders holding Fort Salonga, an engagement now remembered as the Battle of Fort Slongo (its name also rendered as Salonga). The stronghold sat near the boundary separating what would become Huntington Township and Smithtown, New York, with a commanding view of Long Island Sound.

Background

No records survive to pin down exactly when Fort Slongo went up, though it was likely raised in 1778 or 1779, a period when British fortification efforts across Long Island reached their height. It served as a smaller companion post to Fort Franklin, the larger stronghold erected in Lloyd Harbor around that same period. George Slongo, a contractor from Philadelphia, was hired by the British to oversee its construction, and the outpost eventually took his name. Its position, commanding a view of Long Island Sound, made the site valuable enough to warrant building there.

Battle

The evening before the assault, on October 1, an American scouting party under Sgt. Elijah Churchill went forward to map out how the fort might be taken. As it happened, several British officers stationed there had spent the previous night at a social gathering rather than preparing for combat. Churchill's men brought their boats ashore at Crab Meadow, to the west of the fort, then pressed on to the farm belonging to Nathaniel Skidmore nearby. Nathaniel himself guided the party toward the fort so they could size up their approach. It seems likely that the property in question actually belonged to his father, Isaac Skidmore, since Nathaniel could hardly have been older than fifteen at the time and thus too young to hold land at Crab Meadow in his own name. Meanwhile, Major Valanstine, who held command of the fort, happened to be away in New York City handling military business and missed the engagement entirely.

The following night, October 2, a force of one hundred men set out from Norwalk, Connecticut, crossing Long Island Sound by whaleboat under the joint direction of Benjamin Tallmadge and Major Lemuel Trescott. Trescott divided his command into two equal groups: fifty soldiers from Captain Richard's Connecticut Line company and another fifty drawn from Captain Edgar's dismounted dragoons. They came ashore in the pre dawn hours of October 3, at which point Edgar's dragoons were tasked with striking the fort directly and without warning, while Richard's infantry moved to encircle the position and cut off any British escape.

The assault itself began at three in the morning on October 3, when Lieutenant Rogers of the 2nd Regiment of Light Dragoons led his men forward, with Trescott and Edgar's troops following close behind. A British sentry managed to discharge his weapon in warning before falling back into the fort, though in his haste he left the gate standing open behind him. According to the journal kept by Colonel Tallmadge, the defenders did not surrender without a fight once the Americans breached the walls; by the encounter's end, four of the British had been killed and two more wounded.

Aftermath

Once the fighting ended, the attackers set fire to the fort's buildings and whatever supplies remained inside, leaving it useless to the British for the duration of the conflict. Two four-pounder cannons went up in the destruction. In addition to the wreckage, the raiders took prisoner two captains, one lieutenant, and eighteen privates, and they seized a pair of one-pounder cannons along with a single brass one-pounder.

Sgt. Elijah Churchill stood alone as the sole American injured during the engagement. His service earned him personal recognition from George Washington, who presented him with a Badge of Military Merit, an honor that made Churchill the very first recipient of what is now known as the Purple Heart.

The fort's traces can still be found today, situated within a residential neighborhood in the hamlet of Fort Salonga. Its true site sits roughly 3250 feet to the northeast of where the historical marker now stands. The marker itself is positioned at 40°54′44.73″N, 73°17′59.38″W, while the fort's remains lie at 40°55′08.93″N, 73°17′31.94″W. Since this ground belongs to private owners, reaching it would require trespassing, so it remains off limits to visitors.