The Great New York Fire of 1776 A Lost Story of the American Revolution

Who set the mysterious fire that burned down much of New York City shortly after the British took the city during the Revolutionary War?

“An elegant, reader-friendly example of assiduously researched, carefully written American history that feels definitive.”—Robert G. Kaiser, Washington Post

New York City, the strategic center of the Revolutionary War, was the most important place in North America in 1776. That summer, an unruly rebel army under George Washington repeatedly threatened to burn the city rather than let the British take it. Shortly after the Crown’s forces took New York City, much of it mysteriously burned to the ground.