There will be a re-enactment Sunday, Oct. 18, of a key 1776 Revolutionary War battlethat involved Long Island Sound in Westchester's Pelham Manor area and what today is the northeastern Bronx.
It's the Battle of Pell's Point/Pelham's 250th anniversary.According to the Westchester County Historical Society's Facebook page, the 10 a.m.-to-noon re-enactment will occur at the Bronx's Orchard Beach — just south of Westchester's Pelham and north of City Island — depicting the British landing on shore and the Patriots' resistance. (In the 1770s, Westchester extended farther south and encompassed parts of what is now the Bronx).
According to Pelham250,those portraying the British will use flat-bottom boats to land at Orchard Beach and engage with John
Glover and his American patriot regiments. The tall ship Lynx will be moored nearby and will sound a cannon to start the re-enactment. Then boats will be rowed to shore, carrying the British, appearing that they are coming from the larger vessel, according to Westchester County Historical Society.
Coming a year into the war, the battle is credited with helping George Washington to make his way north, evading the British. Washington and his soldiers were fleeing major late-August 1776 losses to the British under Sir Gen. William Howe's command in Brooklyn and Manhattan, the war’s largest clash, where hundreds of British warships filled the city harbor.
After Pelham, Washington then faced the British at Westchester's Battle of White Plains and eventually went on to New Jersey and beyond as the war waged.
A key figure in the Battle of Pell's Point/Pelham was Glover, a Continental Army colonel. He, his regiment, which had spirited Washington and his men away from Brooklyn to Manhattan, and other regiments were in Westchester looking to spot any British ships in October 1776.
Leading to Sunday's re-enactment are several events, all part of Revolution on the Sound:
∎ A Toast 250 Tavern Night is Wednesday, Oct. 14, 6 to 9 p.m., at Kenny's on the Water in New Rochelle. It will welcome the tall ship Lynx,there will be Revolutionary War trivia, re-enactors, and music.
∎ Meet the historians on Thursday, Oct. 15, 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Larchmont's Hommocks Middle School. The conversation, "Privateers, Long Island Sound and the American Revolution," will include author and maritime historian Eric Jay Dolin and Donald Peacock, tall ship Lynx's captain.
∎ A lantern-lit cemetery tour will be Friday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. It's at the revolutionary burial yard at St. Paul's Church National Memorial Site in Mount Vernon.
∎ Tours of tall ship Lynx will be Saturday, Oct. 17, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Hudson Park in New Rochelle.
∎Along with the Battle of Pell's Point/Pelham re-enactment, on Sunday, Oct. 18, there will be a living history family day in Mamoroneck from 1 to 5 p.m, Pavilion Field, Harbor Island Park, Mamaroneck. Among other things, visitors can see the historic whaleboat, the Albatross.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: See tall ship, Pelham Revolutionary War battle re-enactment Oct. 18
