People

Massachusetts general who commanded American forces before Washington arrived.

Eccentric former British officer who served as Washington's second in command.

Former British officer who served as adjutant general, organizing army administration.

Massachusetts farmer-general who commanded siege positions.

New Hampshire lawyer and general who commanded during the siege.

Experienced military engineer who designed American fortifications.

Continental Army surgeon discovered to be a British spy.

Marblehead fisherman whose sailors would later rescue the army at Brooklyn.

Virginia planter and Continental Army commander-in-chief who owned and managed Mount Vernon's enslaved workforce. Absent from his estate for most of the war, he directed Lund Washington's management by correspondence and returned to find the plantation's human community shaped by eight years of wartime disruption.

Washington's wife who managed headquarters social affairs and supported troops.

Connecticut general who commanded troops in lower Manhattan during the Kip's Bay debacle and organized the retreat up the island. Present during the Harlem Heights period as a senior division commander under Washington.

Rhode Island Quaker who became Washington's most capable general. Commanded the Southern Department from December 1780, rebuilding the shattered army and fighting a campaign of strategic attrition that expelled British forces without winning a single tactical victory.

A 25-year-old Boston bookseller who taught himself military science and dragged cannon 300 miles to end the siege.

Washington's military secretary who participated in the Harlem Heights engagement and whose letters home provide some of the most detailed contemporary accounts of the battle's psychological effect on the army.

Massachusetts officer who served on Washington's staff.