In December 1779, New Yorkers helplessly watched as their harbor froze solid and ice slowly strangled the proud entrepôt. In the late 18th century, New York City served as the principal destination for packet ships, offered a range of specialized services for the British military, and facilitated trade between the continental interior and Atlantic world.[1] The loss of the city’s maritime and riverine networks, even temporarily, were disastrous. Ice floes appeared in the Hudson River early in the month. By December 22, the lawyer William Smith reported that ice had formed along the shoreline and had obstructed transportation between Manhattan and New Jersey.[2] In his diary over the coming weeks, Smith described how some parties found themselves trapped between floes while attempting to cross the river.[3] He recalled the grim sight of “numerous Bodies” frozen in the water. [4] “The oldest Man in this Country does not remember such a long Continuance of very severe Cold,” he wrote.[5]
Throughout the winter of 1779-1780, an extraordinary freeze and the ongoing American Revolution tested the city’s limits.[6] After British forces captured New York in September 1776, political and environmental factors prevented them from adequately provisioning the thousands of loyalists, soldiers, and wartime refugees living in Manhattan. Officials struggled to meet inhabitants’ demands for food, fuel, medical and sanitary services, shelter, water, and more. “Fresh victuals were hardly to be had,” wrote one German officer, “nor did we have the price to pay for them. In short, it was real misery.”[7]
How did the situation become so dire? Revolutionaries effectively harassed foraging parties scouring the countryside for fuel, livestock, or vegetables.[8] Rebel privateers used the coves and creeks on Westchester and Connecticut shorelines to intercept supply ships moving through the Long Island Sound.[9] Even when the rivers froze solid and permitted soldiers to travel safely on foot to New Jersey and Long Island, the ice bridges empowered revolutionary forces. [10] “The Town alarmed,” Smith reported on January 15. “If the Ice grows stronger and a Snow Storm rises,” he suggested, “Washington may find us open to a Surprize on every Side.”[11] With much of the royal fleet posted around the globe defending other colonies from United States allies such as France and Spain, officials ordered city’s residents to arrange themselves into ranks and provided them weapons.[12] During the coldest winter months, New York’s waterborne networks, natural systems that powered the city’s growth, trapped inhabitants on Manhattan. And after three years of British occupation, the island’s natural environment was already showing signs of wartime fatigue.