Virtual Talk- Grand Forage 1778: the Battleground Around New York City

Virtual Talk

Grand Forage 1778: the Battleground Around New York City with historian and author Todd W. Braisted: Thurs, December 11, 2025 6 PM

Join historian and author Todd W. Braisted for a virtual talk on the events that inspired his book, Grand Forage 1778: The Battleground Around New York City, which focuses on a pivotal but often overlooked campaign of the Revolutionary War.

After two years of setbacks, 1778 seemed to promise victory for George Washington and the Continental Army: France had entered the war as an ally, the British had evacuated Philadelphia, and the Battle of Monmouth ended in stalemate. Yet, as intelligence poured in suggesting that the British might abandon New York City, Washington was soon confronted with a stunning reversal. In September 1778, nearly 9,000 British troops surged into New Jersey and Westchester County, sparking a complex and deadly campaign that revealed Britain’s last major bid to hold power around New York.

Drawing from letters, journals, newspapers, and archival sources from the United States, Canada, the UK, and Germany, Braisted reconstructs the full scope of this dramatic moment—where strategy and survival collided, and Washington and Sir Henry Clinton engaged in a chess match across the Hudson Valley that foreshadowed the war’s next great phase in the South.

This engaging presentation will illuminate the human stories, battlefield tactics, and shifting political calculations that defined Grand Forage 1778, offering fresh insight into the Revolution’s northern theater.

Admission is FREE, but registration is required to receive a Zoom link.

Todd W. Braisted is an author and independent researcher specializing in Loyalist studies during the American Revolution. He has published over sixty books and journal articles on a variety of period subjects, including the 2016 book Grand Forage 1778. His website, royalprovincial.com, is the leading site for Loyalist research since it debuted in 2000. Todd has likewise appeared as a guest historian on such television shows as History Detectives and Who Do You Think You Are? Over the past four decades, he has served as president of the Bergen County Historical Society and the Brigade of the American Revolution and is a Fellow in the Company of Military Historians. He likewise serves as a member of RevolutionNJ, the state’s advisory council for the Semiquincentennial and is editor in chief of the Papers of Francis Lord Rawdon for the South Carolina American Revolution Sestercentennial Commission. In 2017, Todd wrote the National Park Service Battlefield Studies Preservation Report for Fort Lee, New Jersey. Todd has taught numerous classes for Fort Ticonderoga’s National Endowment for the Humanities Teacher’s Program and Teacher’s Institute. He has lectured extensively on Loyalists and other subjects across the United States and Canada.