Woods, of Colonel Thomas Knowlton (1749-1776), a patriot soldier of the War of Independence, killed at the battle of Harlem Heights.
See Peter Scriver, Beschryvinge der Stad Harlem (Haarlem, 1628); Scheltema, Levensschets van Laurens d.
He enlisted in the Third Virginia regiment, in which he became a lieutenant, and subsequently took part in the battles of Harlem Heights, White Plains, Trenton (where he was wounded), Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth.
Washington prepared to withstand the British behind fortifications on Harlem Heights, but discovering that Howe was attempting to outflank him by landing troops in the rear he retreated to the mainland, leaving only a garrison at Fort Washington, and established a line of fortified camps on the hills overlooking the Bronx river as far as White Plains.
A skirmish, fought the next day, opposite the west front of the present Columbia University, and known as the affair of Harlem Heights, cost the British a loss of seventy of their light infantry.