Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Alternate uses: Fort Washington (disambiguation) Fort Washington was a fortified position on Manhattan Island held by American forces as the British completed their occupation of New York in 1776. British General William Howe ordered Hessian mercenaries under Lieutenant General Wilhelm von Knyphausen to capture the fort from the Patriots. The did so on November 16, 1776 taking several thousand prisoners and a large store of supplies. This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by fixing it. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.