Background
Following the surrender of General John Burgoyne after the Battles of Saratoga in October 1777 and the subsequent entry of France into the war as an American ally, British strategy in dealing with the rebellious Americans was forced to change. In the northern states, their strategy was reduced to raids against targets of economic and military importance, and unsuccessful attempts to bring Major General George Washington's Continental Army into a decisive confrontation. Washington deployed his army in strong positions around the principal British base at New York City, and refused to be drawn out of them.
British military plans for 1779 were large in ambition, but were ultimately hampered, in the opinion of their North American commander in chief, Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton, by shortages of manpower, and delays in the arrival of manpower that was promised for the campaign. Clinton sought to force Washington to weaken the Continental Army camp at Middlebrook in northern New Jersey, after which he would march in force out of New York and capture it. This, Clinton believed, would threaten Washington's supply lines, drawing him out of the highlands on the Hudson River into more favorable terrain for a general engagement.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Stony Point
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—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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