Untold Stories: Charity Ferris, Unsung Heroine of the Battle of Throgs Neck

There are so many inspiring, beautiful stories about the great heroes of American history which are scarcely ever told. That is why I am writing an article series to tell a few of these little-known but moving or illustrative “untold stories” of American greatness.  Today’s story is about a Patriot wife and mother who bravely fought British invaders during the American Revolution—with her wits instead of with guns.

In the chapter of The Indispensables titled “The Forgotten Battles That Saved Washington’s Army,” Patrick K. O’Donnell describes the Oct. 1776 Battle of Throgs Neck, New York. The Americans were fighting for the very survival of their cause as the British, with their superior forces, sought to stamp it out. Among the stories of heroism that day is that of a civilian and a woman.

Charity Ferris’s husband was a Revolutionary soldier captured and imprisoned by the British.  As the British were conducting a cannonade on Throgs Neck, Mrs. Ferris bravely walked up and down on her veranda until the bombardment stopped–possibly because the British were afraid of killing a civilian woman.

Upon landing, the British took over Mrs. Ferris’s home, where she and her servant managed to gather a good deal of intelligence from the British officers and send it on to Gen. George Washington.  Their efforts bore fruit as “The Americans halted an amphibious landing—an exceptionally rare occurrence in history.”

Read the full story on my Substack!