Following the Patriots' defeat at the Battle of Long Island in the autumn of 1776, the Townsend home became the headquarters for the Loyalist Queen's Rangers, led by British Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe}.
He saw action in the Battle of Long Island and served in the New York vicinity until the end of the year.
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He served with distinction and saw action at the battles of Brooklyn, White Plains, Trenton, and Princeton.
Between September 14 and October 20, 1776, General George Washington used the mansion as his temporary headquarters after he and his army were forced to evacuate Brooklyn Heights following their loss to the British Army under the command of General William Howe in the Battle of Long Island.
The Randall burial plot near the William Floyd Parkway includes the grave of Lt. Stephen Randall (1736–1818), patriot of the American Revolution and a Suffolk County Militia veteran of the Battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776, as part of a company of Suffolk County Minutemen commanded by Captain Daniel Mulford.
"The prison ship martyrs," as they're called, are part of this story, as well as intrigue in Philadelphia, the battles of Brooklyn, Monmouth, and Stony Point, the betrayal of West Point, and the hardships of the winter encampments at Valley Forge and Morristown.
He was involved in the Battle of Long Island, where he recovered the body of his commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel James Grant, under enemy fire.