Fort St. George was a Revolutionary War engagement fought in New York, 1780. It was an American victory.
On November 23, 1780, during the American Revolutionary War, Continental Army forces under Benjamin Tallmadge struck a Loyalist stronghold and supply depot situated at the Manor St. George along Long Island's southern shore. This action, known as the Battle of Fort St. George (also called Fort George), marked the endpoint of Tallmadge's raiding expedition against the outpost. The assault achieved its aims: defenders were caught off guard, while attackers seized considerable stores and captured numerous prisoners.
After the British pulled their garrison out of Newport, Rhode Island in 1779, Loyalist families displaced from that colony found new homes on Long Island. A number of them settled at Manor St. George, situated in the southeastern reaches of the island near what is now Shirley, New York. To protect themselves, they built defenses around the manor house, including a stockade wall standing 12 feet (3.7 m) tall and arranged in a rough triangle. Sharpened branches, known as abatis, lined the barrier's exterior, and a deep trench added another layer of protection.
On November 21, 1780, Major Benjamin Tallmadge set out from Fairfield, Connecticut with roughly 80 soldiers pulled from his 2nd Continental Light Dragoons, crossing the Sound in whaleboats and coming ashore near present-day Mt. Sinai. He posted 20 men to watch over the boats and pushed inland with the rest that same night, but foul weather drove them back to the shoreline. Once conditions cleared, Tallmadge tried again on the evening of the 22nd, and his column reached the vicinity of the manor property just before daybreak on the 23rd.
Tallmadge instructed his troops to keep their muskets empty but their bayonets ready, then split his command into three separate groups, each assigned to strike a different face of the stockade. Dim early light kept his approach hidden until his party closed to within 40 yards (37 m) of the wall, at which point a sentry discharged a shot to warn the defenders. The dragoons responded by storming forward immediately. While Tallmadge's own group hacked an opening through the barrier, the other two detachments went over the top of the wall. Tallmadge later wrote that the element of surprise proved decisive, claiming the main house was encircled and gave up "in less than ten minutes." A portion of the Loyalist defenders nonetheless made it to a fortified structure built into the stockade itself, though they too laid down their arms following a short exchange of gunfire.
AMC's spy drama Turn: Washington's Spies brings this clash to the screen in the opening episode of its fourth season.
In the wake of the raid, Tallmadge's men set fire to supply depots and rounded up prisoners that included ordinary civilians alongside the armed men defending the post. The captives were herded overland across the island before being ferried on Tallmadge's boats to Fairfield. Tallmadge stated that his own losses amounted to a single wounded soldier, while he put the enemy's casualties at seven dead and 54 injured.
Among those who took part was Sgt. Elijah Churchill, later honored as the first recipient of the Badge of Military Merit, the award that would eventually evolve into the Purple Heart.
The path Tallmadge's troops followed in crossing the island survives today as the Tallmadge Trail. Meanwhile, the Smith Estate, spanning 127 acres (51 ha), has since become a museum and public park under the management of the township of Brookhaven.
Shaded area is the surveyed battlefield boundary; the pin marks its centre.
This page covers Fort St. George. A full Aubrey report for the area pulls together this battle alongside historic sites, land records, and everything else the record holds within a few miles:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
The account on this page is written by Aubrey Research from cited sources. Wikipedia is cited as a reference; its text is not reproduced. Wikipedia source.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in the US, drawing on NRHP records, battlefield archives, census history and geological data to tell the full story of a place.