It seems to have been pretty well shown that the battle of Harlem Heights was not fought in this locality. It is only in recent years that Morningside Heights have been spoken of as Harlem Heights. In conveying Claremont it is described as in Bloomingdale and according to the map (Mrs. Lamb’s “History of the City of New York,” vol. II, p. 129) the westerly line of Harlem excluded all Morningside Heights except a few feet at the base of the high ground at Manhattanville. The high ground was known as Vandewater Heights, and if the battle had taken place there it would have been known by that name. It is more probable that most of the fighting (which was widespread) took place at the base of the Point of Rocks, south of the Convent of the Sacred Heart, and also along the high ground to the west and north. Day’s Tavern stood a little to the northeast of the Point of Rocks, and there Knowlton and the Connecticut troops were stationed.
Major Lewis Morris, Jr., wrote to his father on September 28th: “Monday morning an advanced party, Colonel Knowlton’s regiment, was attacked on a height a little to the southwest of Day’s Tavern.”
Morningside Heights would have been considerably more than “a little” to the southwest of Day’s Tavern. The detachment sent out before daylight under Knowlton by General Washington was not his regiment but a small body, probably a single company, and was sent to make a diversion upon the enemy’s rear. It is probable that they followed the river’s edge as far south as Ninety-fourth Street, much below Claremont and Morningside Heights. The actual battle did not begin until late in the day. The resolution of Congress passed October 17, 1776, was “Resolved, That General Lee be directed to repair to the camp on the Heights of Harlem with leave,” etc.
Washington had no camp on Morningside Heights. His camp was on the high ground between the Point of Rocks and the Harlem River.
Finally “nowhere on Manhattan Island, to my knowledge, beyond the limit of the city, have there been found the remains of so many English and Hessian soldiers, as shown by buttons, cross-belt buckles, bayonets, and portions of other arms, as have been excavated, from time to time, in the neighborhood of Trinity Cemetery. There could have been no fight at this point unless it was at the battle of Harlem, while the neighborhood about Columbia University, where it is claimed the battle was fought, has been particularly free from all such evidence.”[40] Claremont is now a public restaurant.[41] The adding of the huge inclosed piazzas has produced an effect that is nondescript.