author

Henry Phelps Johnston

1842–1923

Best known for his deep research into the American Revolution, this Yale-educated historian combined a soldier’s firsthand discipline with a scholar’s eye for detail. His books on New York, Yorktown, Stony Point, and Nathan Hale helped shape how later readers understood the war.

1 Audiobook

The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn Including a new and circumstantial account of the battle of Long island and the loss of New York, with a review of events to the close of the year

The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn Including a new and circumstantial account of the battle of Long island and the loss of New York, with a review of events to the close of the year

by Henry Phelps Johnston

About the author

Born in Trebizond, Turkey, in 1842 to American missionary parents, he was educated in New Haven at Hopkins Grammar School and then at Yale, graduating in 1862. During the Civil War he served with the 15th Connecticut Volunteers and in the Signal Corps, later leaving the army as a second lieutenant.

After studying law and briefly practicing, he turned to journalism and then teaching. He joined the City College of New York in 1879 and later became professor of history, retiring in 1916 as emeritus professor. His surviving papers at Yale show that his Civil War experience remained an important part of his life and records.

He became especially respected as a historian of the American Revolutionary War. Among the works most often associated with him are The Campaign of 1776 around New York, The Yorktown Campaign, The Battle of Harlem Heights, The Storming of Stony Point, and Nathan Hale, 1776. He died in Connecticut in 1923.