Incidents of my life, professional, literary, social, with services in the cause of Ireland / by Thomas Addis Emmet.
- Thomas Addis Emmet
- Date:
- 1911
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Incidents of my life, professional, literary, social, with services in the cause of Ireland / by Thomas Addis Emmet. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
579/631 page 438
![I hope Mr. John J. Rooney or Prof. John P. Brophy, both being ready writers, or Mr. Fox, as Secretary, may, at some time place on record a brief detailed account of the working of the organization, and particularly to give due credit to the individual members. Unlike the members of the Board of Trustees, those of the council never became discouraged from the outlook, nor flagged in their efforts to advance the cause of Home Rule for Ireland, until the Irish National Federation of America ceased to exist and the greater portion of them then entered the United Irish League and are at present as zealous workers for the cause. Note X See page 377 [As to where the battle of Harlem Heights was fought,—not on the site of Columbia University grounds.] In answer to an article published in one of the New York papers during the winter of 1905-6, I entered a protest against placing a bronze tablet on one of the buildings of Columbia College, formerly the site of the Blooming- dale Insane Asylum, to designate it as the position where the battle of Harlem was fought. My article was printed in the Magazine of History, New York, September, 1906, to which the reader must refer if wishing to obtain more knowledge in detail, and to consult Mrs. Lamb’s History of New York (vol. ii., page 129) for a reproduction of Cotton’s map, which gives the situation of Day’s tavern, and it in turn locates the point of attack on the American line, which consti- tuted the battle of Harlem. From my article I will give some extracts of general interest. I am aware that this view is held by many, but beyond the fact that the present site of Columbia University must necessarily be nearer the locality where the battle was fought, it has no greater claim, I believe, to that honor than has Union Square, or any other locality. I am not actuated by a spirit of controversy in raising this issue, nor do I intend to take any further part in discussion. I simply wish to offer a protest, in consequence of my knowl- edge that the history of our country is being constantly perverted and mis- stated. There exists no question that the battle of Harlem was fought either to the north or the south of the western portion of Harlem Flats; that the Ameri- cans occupied certain heights; and that the assault of the English was made by one body, and that the larger portion, from the plain below along these heights; at the same time a smaller body gained the top of these heights by ascending a ravine from the Hudson River bank at some distance from the main line of attack. The whole question then relates to the locality of Har- lem Heights. Before presenting the evidence on which I propose to base my argument it will be necessary to make a digression.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28034776_0584.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
