The battle of Harlem Heights by Thomas Addis Emmet is a historical account written in the early 20th century. It reassesses the American Revolutionary War engagement at Harlem Heights, challenging accepted identifications of the battlefield and arguing—through documents, maps, and topography—for a different site and interpretation of the action.The book opens with an Evening Post piece quoting a lieutenant’s diary that places the fight near present-day Columbia University, then presents Emmet’s detailed rebuttal. Drawing on his intimate knowledge of the terrain around McGowan’s Pass, the Point of Rocks, Trinity Cemetery, and Manhattanville, he contends that “Harlem Heights” lay north of the Harlem Flats and that the principal combat occurred along the entrenchments near the Point of Rocks, not on Morningside Heights. He distinguishes a brief dawn skirmish involving Knowlton from the later, sustained engagement, cites a Congressional reference to “the Heights of Harlem,” and points to battlefield relics found near Trinity Cemetery as corroboration. A postscript urges correcting commemorative markers (including the famous “buckwheat field” site), and a rejoinder answers critics by reaffirming the geography, locating Day’s Tavern, and invoking historical maps to support his case. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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