One day after the panicked rout at Kips Bay, George Washington’s demoralized army faced the British on September 16, 1776, in the woods of what is now upper Manhattan. A scouting mission by Thomas Knowlton’s Rangers grew into a full battle after British troops mocked the retreating Americans with a fox hunting bugle call.

This episode traces how Washington tried to trap the overconfident British light infantry, how a misdirected flanking party lost both of its commanders, Knowlton and Andrew Leitch, and how the Americans still pushed the British back to a buckwheat field where Barnard College now stands. It was a small fight with large effects, restoring the army’s confidence that it could stand up to the British.

• The landing at Kips Bay and Washington striking fleeing officers with his riding crop
• Why the Hollow Way and Knowlton’s disciplined retreat mattered
• Joseph Reed recognizing the fox hunt bugle call and what it revealed about British overconfidence
• Three-pounder cannon, black powder smoke, and Washington’s call to halt the pursuit
• Conflicting casualty reports and the loss of Knowlton, the army’s first intelligence chief