Glover's Rock: The Delay That Saved Washington's Army
New York
Near this rock on October eighteenth, seventeen seventy-six, Colonel John Glover and about seven hundred fifty men of four Massachusetts regiments, including his own Marblehead Regiment, fought one of the Revolutionary War's most consequential rear-guard actions. Facing an overwhelming British and Hessian force under General Howe pushing northward through Westchester, Glover's men moved from stone wall to stone wall, firing and falling back, buying time for Washington's main army to withdraw toward White Plains.
Glover was already a hero of the retreat from Long Island two months earlier, having commanded the flat-bottomed boats that ferried Washington's army across the East River through the night. Now he did it again on land, his Massachusetts soldiers, many of them fishermen and sailors, holding off thousands of regulars long enough to prevent a disaster.
Washington's army escaped destruction and lived to fight on. The engagement here in the Bronx is one of the quiet turning points the history books often miss.
