The aim of Howe was to get control of the Hudson and to meet half way the advance from Canada by way of Lake Champlain which Carleton was leading.

On the 12th of October, when autumn winds were already making the nights cold, Howe moved.

He did not attack Washington who lay in strength at the Harlem.

That would have been to play Washington's game.

Instead he put the part of his army still on Long Island in ships which then sailed through the dangerous currents of Hell Gate and landed at Throg's Neck, a peninsula on the sound across from Long Island.