Mary Murray's Tea Party

During the Revolutionary War, British General William Howe aimed to capture the Continental Army by marching his 8,000 troops into Manhattan. Unaware that General Israel Putnam's 3,500 troops were retreating to join Washington's forces in Harlem, Howe's forces were stalled by Mary Murray's invitation to tea. This social diversion, lasting over two hours, allowed Putnam's men to escape northward, potentially saving a significant portion of the American army.

"The latest opinion on the subject, however, tends to deprive Mrs. Murray of any patriotic solicitude for the American cause; she befriended that cause without intending to do so. Her family associates seem to have been with a Tory or at least a neutral kind, rather than the contrary, and the lunch party as an act of civility toward friends in acceptance of which Howe had not the wisdom to foresee the danger. Howe’s nature was easy-going and social; the stern cards of war sat lightly on him. General Putnam, with that Yankee insight of his, early took a measure of the order of Howe’s mind when he said incisively; “How is either our friend or he is no General.^[1]”  - New York Times, July 30th, 1898

The Knickerbocker Chapter, New York of the Daughters of the American Revolution erected a plaque at Park Avenue and East 37th Street, Manhattan, on November 25, 1903, in honor of Mary Lindley Murray.