In 1776, Harlem Heights, in a northern section of the island of Manhattan, was still many years away from being an urban part of New York City proper.

After being so blisteringly dislodged from their defensive positions further to the south, George Washington thought he identified in the high, rocky ground of this area a chance to dig in and hold the British forces back.

Alexander Hamilton—who at most had perhaps enjoyed a brief introduction to General George Washington weeks previously—evidently caught the Virginian’s eye here on, or about. September 16, 1776. Hamilton was not yet in the uniform of the American Continental Army, but was still attached to a New York artillery unit. Hamilton apparently struck a favorable chord in Washington as he busily oversaw his men helping construct earthworks to slow the British advance.

The lion’s share of the fighting at Harlem Heights took place in a buckwheat field in the neighborhood where Broadway now intersects 119th Street. Washington—during the time he could hold the ground—used the still-extant Morris-Jumel Mansion as his headquarters.

The patriots succeeded in holding off their pursuers, and the fighting gradually subsided as it became clear that no good opportunities existed for open confrontations between the opposing forces.

Washington and Hamilton would remain in the area until forced to retreat further north, off the island of Manhattan altogether, in early October.

Not far from here, Hamilton would later build his Grange home, and own a roughly bowtie-shaped parcel of land between 140th and 146th Streets. His wife Elizabeth Hamilton would sell this in 1833, decades after Hamilton’s death, in preparation for her own move to New York City that year.