Explore how New York City became the central battlefield and spy capital of the American Revolution in 1776. Following disastrous retreats at the Battle of Brooklyn and in Kips Bay, George Washington’s exhausted Continental Army faced near collapse until a victory at Harlem Heights boosted morale. Historians Thomas Fleming and Richard Morris detail the turning points that followed: the deployment of David Bushnell's "Turtle" (history's first submarine attack in New York Harbor), the mysterious Great Fire of 1776, secret spy rings using invisible ink, and Benedict Arnold’s treasonous plot with British Major John André. From loyalist conflicts in Westchester’s "No Man’s Land" to Washington’s refusal to become a military dictator, discover how New York survived seven years of British occupation to lead to Washington being sworn in as the first U.S. President.
The final part of the four-part program "Paths of Rebellion: New York in the Revolution" (1976) is from the THIRTEEN Vault.
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