The
largest battle of the American War of Independence was fought on Long
Island, no more than a brisk walk east of our neighborhoods. It may be
difficult to imagine red-coated British infantrymen, Hessian grenadiers,
kilted Highlanders and a plethora of soldiery pursuing New Yorkers,
Marylanders and other Americans into Trader Joe’s or along DeGraw
Street, but these familiar locations saw intense military activity
towards the end of August 1776.
Our
neighborhoods did, of course, look somewhat different in 1776. The
Brooklyn of yesteryear was dominated by the Heights of Guan or the
Brookland Heights (at times also referred to as the Prospect Range), a
rocky and heavily wooded moraine ridge that ran down the center of Long
Island, roughly along the lines of today’s Greenwood Cemetery to
Prospect Park and then northeast to Jamaica. The ridge was covered with
trees such as oak, ash, chestnut and Pepperidge, with the occasional
garden patch, or “English meadow” to break up the woods. The Gowanus
Creek and the marshes on both sides of the creek separated the Heights
of Guan from the elevated areas in today’s Carroll Gardens through
Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights to Fort Greene. All of these areas were
sprinkled with farms and villages, many dating back to the 17th
century. The area was nevertheless sparsely settled: the first census
that was taken just after the War of Independence indicated that there
were 3,017 white residents and 1,478 residents of African origin in
Kings County. New York City itself had a population of approximately
25,000 at the time.
According
to a British traveler by the name of Smyth who visited New York during
the War of Independence, two-thirds of the population on Long Island
were of Dutch origin, and particularly in the western parts. They did
“…make use of their customs and language in preference to English”.
The Hessian Adjutant-General Major Baurmeister of the von Mirbach
regiment described the western end of Long Island as follows: “The
inhabited regions resemble Westphalian peasant districts; upon separate
farms the finest houses are built, which are planned and completed in
the most elegant fashion. The furniture in them is in the best taste,
nothing like which is to be seen with us, and besides so clean and neat,
that altogether it surpasses every description. The female sex is
universally beautiful and delicately reared, and is finely dressed in
the latest European fashion, particularly in India laces, white cotton,
and silk gauzes”. Another Hessian, Brigade Commander Colonel Count Carl von Donopcalled Long Island “a beautiful island, an arcadia, a most delightful region”.
Preparations and Fortifications
The
newly commissioned Brigadier General William Alexander, Lord Stirling,
was in charge of implementing the defense plan for New York. It may seem
odd to see a Lord Stirling in the American Army, but the New
Jersey-born Alexander had previously travelled to London to secure his
claim to the title of the Scottish earldom of Stirling.
The defense plan was originally drafted by Charles Lee (while
struggling with a gout flare-up), third in command after Washington.
When Lord Stirling took over after his friend Lee in March, 1776, he had
accepted Lee’s conclusion that the British would try to attack New York
City itself. Besides the armed forces as well as out-of town
reinforcements that were made available to Lord Stirling, approximately
1,000 New Yorkers helped build the fortifications in Manhattan and
Brooklyn. Some of New York’s gentlemen paid considerable fines to hire
workers that would exempt them from service, but most chose not to. Lord
Stirling noted that everybody worked “with great spirit and industry”.
New Yorkers from all social classes, and blacks as well as whites,
helped build the fortifications, and they were mustered each morning
with fife and drum. Whites worked every other day while blacks worked
every day. The excavation and construction of the fortifications was, of
course, hard and dirty work. Officers complained about their inability
to keep their men in clothes, since they wore out their garments in very
little time. The amount of grime on the soldiers made Greene write to
Washington that it would be “a piece of justice to the troops to allow
them a double quantity of soap”. However, the accommodations of the
soldiers were decent. Most lived in bell-shaped tents with wooden
floors, and they could vary their fare with produce from the Dutch farms
in the area. Some soldiers were even given leave to visit Manhattan.
Without any enemies in the immediate vicinity, the American soldiers
began relaxing, but discipline was maintained by diligent individuals
such as Lieutenant-Colonel Cornell of Hitchcock’s Regiment who was known
as “Old Snarl”. Pilfering was strictly forbidden, and General Greene
wrote that “a few unprincipled rascals may ruin the reputation of a
whole corps of virtuous men”. As the warm season started, health issues
had to be addressed with increased vigilance. So-called “Colormen” kept
the camps somewhat clean while tending to the hospitals, and cooking
practices were given strict attention. Although deployment on Long
Island offered less than Manhattan in terms of women or grog shops,
General Greene wrote in a general order that “complaints have been made
by the inhabitants situated near the Mill Pond [on today’s Gowanus
Canal] that some of the soldiers come there to go swimming in the open
view of the women and that they come out of the water and run to the
houses naked with a design to insult and wound the modesty of female
decency, [so] ‘tis with concern that the general finds himself under the
disagreeable necessity of expressing his disapprobation of such beastly
conduct”.
There
was also the issue of the Tory element. The inhabitants of Queens
County in particular displayed Tory sympathies, and previous attempts to
disarm the inhabitants had been less than successful. One Whig reported
that “The people conceal all their arms that are of any value; many
declare that they know nothing about the Congress, nor do they care
anything for the orders of Congress, and say that they would sooner or
later lose their lives than give up their arms”.
Problems persisted, and in January of 1776, a Colonel Nathaniel Heard
of New Jersey was dispatched by Congress together with a regiment of
militia and 300 troops of the Connecticut Line to arrest the Tory
leaders.
Work
on the fortifications of New York started in Manhattan, and when these
fortifications were completed, work began in Brooklyn. The initial plans
called for three forts to be built on the crest of Brooklyn Heights to
command the East River, but only one fort – Fort Stirling – was actually
built. Its approximate location was at the intersection of Columbia
Street and Clark Street. Another massive fort, the Congress, was started
on the plateau of Brooklyn heights near today’s corner of Henry and
Pierrepont. This fort was a hexagonal construction that was planned to
cover a good five acres, and it was mainly built by slaves. However,
this fort was not able to defend from an attack in the rear from the
interior of Long Island, and it was not completed.
The
Heights of Guan did in themselves offer a natural line of defense
across Brooklyn. There were only four roads through the ridge, at
Gowanus, Flatbush, Bedford and Jamaica, respectively. The fortifications
between Red Hook and up towards the Brooklyn Navy Yards of this day
would provide a second line of defense to protect Manhattan.
The
defenses of New York between Wallabout Bay and the marshes of the
Gowanus consisted of three forts and two redoubts with breastworks
connecting them.
The fortifications were strung out along roughly a mile and a half
between today’s Fort Greene, which was a full one hundred feet above sea
level, and the lower-lying lands owned by Rutgert Van Brunt and
Johannes Debevoise.
The
northernmost redoubt was close to Wallabout Bay on today’s Cumberland
between Myrtle and Willoughby. It was only referred to as “the left
redoubt” or “on its left” of Fort Putnam, which in turn was located at
the Fort Greene Park of this day. Fort Putnam was a star shaped fort
with four or five cannon, and it was named after the Chief Engineer,
Colonel Rufus Putnam. The fort held a garrison of five companies.
Fort
Oblong was located south of Fort Putnam. It was, as the name implies,
an oblong fortification that held three companies. It was located at
DeKalb and Hudson Avenues. Fort Greene (not to be confused with today’s
Fort Greene) was next in the defense chain. This was a
star-shaped
fort with a well, two magazines and six cannon. Named after General
Nathanael Greene and commanded by a Colonel Little, it was the largest
fort on Long Island, having room for an entire regiment, and it could be
found on Bond Street between State and Schermerhorn. The southernmost
fortification, Fort Box, was built in May and June approximately a mile
south of Fort Greene. Fort Box was small diamond-shaped outpost on
Bergen’s Hill, approximately on Pacific Street above Bond Street. It was
named after Major Daniel Box, General Greene’s brigade-major (an office
corresponding to adjutant-general).
Fort
Cobble Hill, also called the “Corkscrew Fort” after the spiral road
that was paved to move cannon to its top, was located west of the
Wallabout Bay-Gowanus defense line, on the corner of Court Street and
Atlantic Avenue. In orders of the day the fort was also called “Smith’s
Barbette” after Captain William Smith, an engineer whom Lee brought
along who also commanded the fort. It was situated on the top of a
cone-shaped hill rearing itself above the surrounding corn fields and
referred to as Ponkiesbergh by the Dutch settlers and Bergen Hill by the
British. Fort Cobble Hill overlooked New York harbor and South
Brooklyn, and it mounted three or four cannon. The construction, and
especially the turf laying, was apparently challenging. There were few
turf layers available, and the ones who volunteered were allowed half a
pint of rum per day.
The
name Cobble Hill may very well originate from the Battle of Long
Island, since the hill resembled a Cobble Hill in Sommerville that held
an American fortification during the siege of Boston. Greene’s brigade
was posted close to the Bostonian Cobble Hill during the siege, and
referring to Ponkiesbergh as Cobble Hill may have been preferable to the
New Englanders. It has also been claimed that the name Cobble Hill
comes from the large amount of cobble stones being disposed of around
the hill. Such cobble stones were used as ballast on sailing vessels.
There
was also the Redoubt at the Mill, a small battery with breastwork on
the eastern end of a long and low sand hill on what now is Degraw and
Bond Streets. It was in form of a right angle with a single cannon
facing a narrow bridge across the Gowanus, a bridge that subsequently
played a part in the American retreat from the Heights of Guan. The Mill
was actually two mills on the other side of the bridge, and they were
called the Upper or Yellow Mill, and the Lower Mill. The Redoubt was
opposite the Upper Mill.
Each
of the fortifications was a surrounded by a wide ditch lined with
pointed stakes, and every fortification had sally ports. Trees had been
cut down to a distance of around 100 yards in front of the
fortifications, and most fortifications were surrounded by abatis from
the felled trees to provide additional defenses. The fortifications were
also supplied with food and water to enable the garrison to withstand a
siege.
Fort
Defiance in Red Hook was the southernmost link in the fortification
chain. It was built on a 75 foot hill on top of Cypress Tree Island that
was located between today’s Pioneer Street, Dwight Street, Beard Street
and the Buttermilk Channel. The fort commanded entry to both the East
River and Buttermilk Channel. Fort Defiance was probably built on top of
an old abandoned fort from the 16th century, and it was completed
overnight on April 8, 1776. The armaments consisted of four 18 pound
guns firing over breastworks.
The American Forces
The
American soldiers that fought in the battle were to a significant
extent inexperienced recruits from all walks of life, many of them drawn
in by promises of cash or land grants: gentlemen, fortune seekers,
farmers, freed slaves and paid substitutes, or “the young, the
inexperienced, the unemployed, the socially expendable”.
There were some veterans as well a few officers that had served under
the British, but few of the troops that fought with Washington around
Boston re-enlisted. The new recruits received little training, and
on-the-job training on a battlefield is daunting at best. Issues were
further aggravated by rivalry between the colonies, and eight of the 13
colonies sent contingents to New York with Connecticut providing the
largest one. Diarist Joseph Plumb Martin claimed that “he would rather
serve alongside Indians” than men from Pennsylvania whom were regarded
as “mostly foreigners”.
The backwood ways and habits of some of the riflemen from the frontier
states may very well have been embarrassing to the urban New York
cousin, as they had been to the pious New Englanders during the battles
around Boston the previous year.
The
citizen-soldier was often a fair-weather friend, with morale soaring
with successes, and desertion and insubordination after even minor
setbacks. Pay was another issue. The American soldiers were paid more
than their British counterparts, but they were paid in Continental
bills, bills that often weren’t accepted by merchants. Early in 1776,
General John Sullivan complained that “not near half of the
Massachusetts militia could be prevailed upon to tarry and many of them
went off one day before their time was out”.
But for some unfortunate recruits, service provided clothing and food
they otherwise couldn’t afford. The American officers were equally
inexperienced as well, although some were veterans from the French and
Indian War. The American officers were in general unable to maneuver the
significant formations that Putnam had under his command during the
battle.
New
York State provided around 4,500 men, while New York City contributed
two battalions containing companies with fancy names such as Captain
James Alner’s “the Prussian Blues”, Captain John Berrian’s “the Hearts
of Oak”, Captain John J. Roosevelt’s “Oswego Rangers” and Captain
Abraham Van Wyck’s “the Sportsmen”. King’s County was represented by a
small regiment commanded by Jeronimus Remsen as well as a troop of
cavalry. Few units wore anything that looked like uniforms, except for
Colonel Haslet’s 1st Delaware Regiment, and the “Dandy Fifth”
Marylanders, the latter referred to as “macaronis” by the rest of the
American soldiers.
Then
there was Colonel John Lasher’s at part rather extravagantly uniformed
New York City “Battalion of Independent Companies of Foot”. This unit
was composed of young men “of respectability and wealth”.
Other units were dressed in civilian garb, or at best hunting shirts.
Captain Wagner, Hessian Colonel von Donop’s adjutant, wrote that “their
clothing is a great mixture. A short smock of blue or white linen
somewhat gathered at the sleeves”.
Firearms were also in short supply, with various muskets being
supplemented by hunting rifles, blunderbusses and anything else that
could fire a ball.
Despite all these shortcomings, Lord Stirling remained quite
optimistic, hoping that the British would attack New York. He perceived
the American positions as being quite strong.
Although
George Washington held overall command, the American forces in Brooklyn
were commanded by Major-General Israel Putnam. He was a colorful
character surrounded by a mass of legends and anecdotes. He was almost
burnt at the stake by Indians in 1758, he had been shipwrecked off Cuba,
and he had later on opened a tavern and married a wealthy widow.
Colorful or not, “Old Put” was an indifferent officer, and he was
probably promoted way beyond his capabilities. Since General Greene’s
feel ill in a near fatal bout of typhus (“camp fever” in the terminology
of the 18th century), Putnam eventually was appointed to his command as
late as August 24. Putnam did not know Long Island. Apparently he did
very little to improve upon his lack of knowledge before the English
attacked a few days later.
The British and their Allies
The
British commander, General William Howe, did on the other hand hope
that the Americans would be more aggressive and perhaps over-confident,
leading to a battle in the open. Howe had served in the colonies
throughout his long career, he had a reputation as a bold and even
reckless soldier, but he was also moderate Whig who sympathized with the
colonists.
Howe’s units were composed of Brits, Scots and Germans, the latter
being from Hessen and other German principalities. Loyalist colonists
were later added to Howe’s force. The British soldiers were
professionals, well-trained, often experienced, and well-led at the unit
level, not to mention brutally disciplined. The ordinary soldiers were
mainly recruited from the lower classes of society, and the army had a
somewhat poor public image, since British taxpayers saw a peacetime army
as an extravagance. It was difficult for His Majesty’s Army to find
recruits, and by 1776 even Roman Catholics were allowed into the ranks.
Howe was not pleased, since he deemed the Catholics “certain to desert
if put to hard work, and from their ignorance of arms are not entitled
to the smallest confidence as soldiers”.
In general, though, the forces in the colonies were better trained and
more experienced than their counterparts back in England, and so were
the officers serving in America. Scottish units were raised in a part of
the United Kingdom that held soldiery in high regard, so these units
tended to be of even higher quality.
But the quality of the soldiers could not compensate for the lackluster
high command, the ridiculously complicated organization and the inept
administration. The latter led to serious supply problems for the His
Majesty’s forces, since almost all provisions had to be shipped from
England. Food supply was particularly difficult, with inferior goods
being further diminished by pilfering, poor packaging, and slow
shipments. The British soldier daily rations were supposed to consist of
1 lb of bread or flour, 1 lb of beef, 3/7 of a pint of peas, 6/7 oz. of
butter, or 2/7 oz. of cheese, and 1/7 oz. of rice or oatmeal as well as
a rum ration, but this was either spoiled or simply not available.
Surveyors checking provisions sent from Cork would regularly report of
“very old Bread, Weavile Eaten, full of Maggots, mouldy, musty and
rotten and entirely unfit for men to eat”. Meat would be described as
“pork seemed to be four or five years old. It was streaked with black
towards the outside and was yellow further in, with a little white in
the middle.”
The
German units from Hessen, Brunswick, Waldeck and the other German
principalities were typically from poor families and between the age of
16 and 30 and contracted to serve for 24 years. Men owning farmland,
students, and other privileged parts of society were usually exempt from
service. The officers were mostly commoners, many of whom had risen
through the ranks. Officers from the aristocracy were common, but a
minority. Most Hessians were stout Calvinists.
Reports
about Hessian cruelty had been circulated among the Americans even
before the arrival of the German contingent. They were described as
indulging in rapine and bloodshed as well as delighting in torture.
Conversely, the Hessians were told by the British that the Americans
were savage foes. James Thacher, a physician serving with the Americans
later reported that captured “officers and soldiers, by a finesse of the
British to increase their ferocity, had been led to believe that
Americans are savages and barbarians, and, if taken, their men would
have their bodies stuck full of pieces of dry wood and in that manner
burned to death”.
The British had also told the Hessians that the Americans practiced
cannibalism on defeated enemies, noting, as evidence, the tomahawk that
most Americans carried.
The British did seem to do a fair amount of double-dealing with the
Hessians, who at times did not understand the attitudes of neither Brit
nor American. Lieutenant Andreas Wiederholt wrote that “…it happened
that the silly Americans had an odd impression and fear of us Hessians.
They did not believe that we looked like other human beings, but thought
that we had a strange language and that we were a raw, wild, and
barbaric nation”.
Other Hessians deplored the disloyalty of the rebel Americans against
their sovereign, while yet other Hessians were revolted by the hypocrisy
and idleness of the Virginians, who lived by slave labor.
Other
units included Loyalist units such as the New York Volunteers from
Westchester. This unit lacked uniforms, and they could therefore scout
and infiltrate Washington’s forces. There were also a few black
regiments from the West Indies in the ranks of the British. These units
were recruited from the slave population and promised freedom for
service.
Besides
the fighting men, it should also be added that both sides included a
vast variety of civilian men, women and children in their respective
baggage trains. German and British officers and non-commissioned
officers were often allowed to bring “necessary women”, i.e. their wives
on campaign, and then there were various civilian contractors such as
drivers, waggoners, sutlers and other craftsmen. There were also
non-contracted camp followers, general hangers-on, odd-job men and
prostitutes.
The Battle
Following
the defeat after the ten-month siege of Boston, Lord Howe withdrew all
of his troops on St. Patrick’s Day 1776. Howe was intent on attacking
New York next, and George Washington fully expected Howe to attack the
city. Brigadier General William Thompson took over from Stirling after
the Thompson’s arrival on March 20, and reinforcements from
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia arrived to bolster the defenses in
Brooklyn and Staten Island. But a fair number of invalids were included
in these reinforcements, and many of the soldiers did not have firearms.
Diseases in New York had further reduced the effective strength of the
Americans.
Howe
set sail from Halifax on June 11 with an army of approximately 9,000,
and between July 12 and August 12, a British fleet of approximately 400
vessels carrying 25,000 soldiers assembled off Staten Island, which was
turned into a staging area.
A
severe thunderstorm lashed New York on the night of August 21. Several
inhabitants were struck dead by lightning, and some regarded this as bad
omens. The landing of British troops at the villages of New Utrecht and
Gravesend on August 22 probably reinforced the unease of the civilian
New Yorkers. The British advance guard of some 4,000 men under generals
Clinton and Cornwallis did not meet any resistance, although the
American advance parties did burn down all houses and barns as they
withdrew.
The British were well received on southern Long Island. One British
officer claimed that “The Inhabitants receiv’d our people with the
Utmost Joy, having seen long oppress’d for their Attachment to
Government”.
Two Tory regiments, all local militia with red badges in their hats,
added 600 men to the British forces, and 800 slaves that had fled to the
British were formed into a labor regiment. Other Long Island Royalists
acted as informers and guides for the British.
However, further north into Kings County, rumors of the advancing
British soldiers caused quite a commotion in the villages, and there
were quite a few skirmishes between American and British troops. Howe
spent four days gathering intelligence and planning his advance, and at 9
PM on August 26 he made his move. His units marched through the night
and were ready to engage the Americans on a hot Tuesday morning, August
27, 1776.
The
battle itself was dominated by the British. The Americans had not left
any troops to guard the roadways through the Heights of Guan, and the
main American line was out-flanked by British light infantry and
grenadiers coming from Bedford, Hessians advancing from Flatbush, and
yet more British infantry advancing from today’s Sunset Park. The
advance guard of the latter prong was possibly noticed when two British
soldiers were caught foraging for watermelons from a patch by the Red
Lion Inn (39th street and 5th Avenue) by soldiers from Colonel Hand’s
Pennsylvania Regiment. The foragers beat a hasty retreat, but their
5,000 comrades were close behind.
The
subsequent American retreat was close to a rout, and they could have
been overrun by His Majesty’s troops. The British forces showed little
mercy on the Americans. Colonel Heinrich Anton von Heringen, commanding
the Hessian regiment “von Lossberg”, remarked that “the English soldiers
did not give much quarter and constantly urged our men to follow their
example”. An officer of Major Simon Fraser’s 71st Highland Regiment
stated that “it was a fine sight to see with what alacrity they
dispatched the rebels with bayonets, after we had surrounded them so
that they could not resist. We took care to tell the Hessians that the
rebels had resolved to give no quarter to them in particular; which made
them fight desperately, and put all to death who fell into their
hands”.
But there were also cases where prisoners were taken without cruelty by
the Hessians, for example by the Grenadier Regiment von Rall, where a
von Elking saw the Americans more as civilians than trained soldiers.
But
the remnants of the American forces were to a not inconsiderable extent
saved when Lord Stirling counter-attacked the British at the Gowanus
Road near the Vechte Farm House (now the Old Stone House on 3rd Street
and 5th Avenue) west of Prospect Park with just about 400 Marylanders.
Seeing Lord Stirling’s Marylanders advancing from his command post by
Cobble Hill Fort at the intersection of today’s Atlantic Avenue and
Court Street, George Washington reportedly wrung his hands and cried
out: “Good God! What brave fellows I must this day lose!” At the end of
the day, 256 of the 400 Marylanders were lying dead in front of the
Vechte Farm. Lord Stirling was captured, surrendering his sword to
Hessian overall commander General von Heister.
But despite the intrepid Marylanders, the retreat across the
approximately 80 muddy yards of the Gowanus Creek and adjoining marshes
was less than orderly. The Americans were forced to retreat down the
Porte Road (today’s First Street) to cross the tidal flats of the
Gowanus Creek at Freeke’s Pond, where there was a wooden bridge. For
some reason, the bridge caught fire, and the retreating Americans were
forced into the Gowanus Creek, and many drowned, weighted down by
weapons and equipment. The bridge was located where the Union Street
Bridge is today. The Americans were also bombarded by British artillery
firing grapeshot, roundshot and chain, while “some of (the Americans)
were mired and crying to their fellows to their fellows for God’s sake
to help them out; but every man was intent on his own safety and no
assistance was rendered.” Other American soldiers were cut off by the British and forced to seek shelter in the woods.
The
end result of the battle was roughly 1,200 dead Americans and another
1,500 wounded, captured or missing, while the British suffered a mere 60
dead and 300 wounded or missing. The Americans casualties included some
individuals that are commemorated in street names, most notably General
Nathaniel Woodhull. He was surprised at an inn on Jamaica Road by a
party of British light horse under Oliver De Lancey together with a
detachment of Fraser’s Highlander’s led by Captain Sir James Baird on
the day after the battle. A British officer apparently hacked him in the
head and arm, purportedly for not saying, "God save the King," as
ordered, saying instead "God save us all". Woodhull was carried him off
as a prisoner to New Utrecht, where he died on September 20.
The
British forces also captured six field cannon and 26 heavy cannon. But
despite this favorable outcome, Howe did not follow the Americans across
the Gowanus Creek. Instead, he started to preparations for a siege of
the American fortifications west of the Gowanus Creek. With Washington
with his back towards the East River and his troops defeated, Howe did
have a real opportunity to extinguish the revolution once and for all.
But for some reason, he didn’t. There has been much speculation as to
why he paused his advance. Did he prefer to avoid a frontal assault
similar to Bunker Hill? Did he hope that the Americans would simply
capitulate without a fight? Regardless of which Washington was left
around Brooklyn Heights with around 9,000 mostly miserable soldiers.
The Retreat
Both
sides were beset by almost incessant rains for the two days following
the battle, making it impossible to light campfires and to keep
gunpowder dry. The Americans also lacked tents and baggage trains, and
both food and drink was scarce. If food was available, cooking was
impossible, and some Americans had to subside on hard biscuits and raw
pork. The entrenchments and fortifications were rapidly being drenched
by the downpour. General Scott wrote that “you may judge of our
situation, subject to almost incessant rains, without baggage or tents,
and almost without victuals or drink, and in some parts of the lines the
men were standing up to their middles in water”. Captain Olney stated
that “the rain fell in such torrents that the water was soon ankle-deep
in the fort. Yet, with all these inconveniences, and a powerful enemy
just without musket-shot, our men could not be kept awake”. The mood of
the soldiers was deteriorating. The only bright spot was that heavy
winds did keep the Royal Navy from entering the East River, thus cutting
off Washington from Manhattan.
On
August 29, the British trench lines were only about 600 yards from the
American lines, and another full day of digging would place the British
within musketry range. British reconnaissance probes against Fort Greene
in particular were repulsed, but Washington remained outnumbered two to
one with his back to the East River, an army with low morale, the Royal
Navy poised to attack from the sea - when the weather improved - and
the British Army preparing a siege of Brooklyn Heights. The decision was
made to evacuate. Fortunately for the Americans, the storm was followed
by dense fog that covered New York in the early morning of August 30,
thus reinforcing the concealment of the hazardous evacuation from the
British. The evacuation was supposed to start at 8 o’clock, but the
weather delayed the operation by several hours. Once the operation
started, the 27th Massachusetts and Colonel John Glover’s Marblehead
regiment, both mainly composed of fishermen, led the river crossing.
They would row approximately a mile in each direction to ferry 9,000
Americans as well as their horses, their cannon and their supplies over
to Manhattan. Some of Glover’s men rowed across the East River as many
as eleven times before the evacuation was completed. The oarsmen were so
careful not to make noise that some tied their shirts around the oars
to muffle the sound of oars in the water. The situation was hazardous in
the extreme. Washington rode all night among the troops on his white
mule Magnolia, telling them to “keep quiet and keep moving.” He
supervised the operation himself, and in the scant light of the early
morning sun, Lieutenant Ben Tallmadge of the Continental Line looked
back across the river from Manhattan. Through the receding mists, he
claims to have seen a tall figure in a long black cloak with a three
cornered hat: George Washington may very well have been the last man out
of Brooklyn.
Pastor
Schaukirk saw the soldiers debarking on the west side of the East
River: “The merry tones on drums and fife had ceased. It seemed as if a
general damp had spread, and the sight of the scattered people up and
down the streets was indeed moving. Many looked sickly, emaciated, cast
down, etc.”
Morale was steadily declining, and even the troops from New England,
supposedly the hotbed of rebellion, left en masse after the battle. But
not everyone fell victim to the pervading anxiety: Abigail Adams, the
wife of John Adams, wrote that “But if we should be defeated, I think we
shall not be conquered. A people fired, like the Romans, with love of
their country and of liberty, a zeal for the public good, and a noble
emulation of glory, will not be disheartened or dispirited by a
succession of unfortunate events. But, like them, may we learn the power
of becoming invincible!”
The Battlefield Today
Considering
the extensive memorials for other battles fought on American soil, it
is disappointing to see that the biggest battle of the American War of
Independence has received so little attention. There is a plaque on the
side of the building that was the South Brooklyn Savings Institution
(now Trader Joe’s), commemorating the location of Washington’s
observation post on Cobble Hill. Washington’s retreat across the East
River is commemorated by a bronze plaque by the sidewalk next to the
Fulton Ferry Landing, just south of the River Café. There are several
other sites on the east side of the Gowanus Canal dedicated to the
soldiers that fought in the Battle of Brooklyn, for example in the
Greenwood Cemetery and around 9th Street and 4th Avenue, where the
Marylanders that counterattacked to save the retreat may have been
buried. There is also the Old Stone House on 3rd Street and 5th Avenue,
which is a reconstruction of the original 17th century farmhouse,
dedicated to the American Revolution, colonial life and Brooklyn. The
Battle of Brooklyn was also commemorated in a farce written by an
anonymous playwright after the battle, but it seems quite reasonable to
assume that the tens of thousands of British, Scottish, American and
German soldiers that struggled in the heat and rains of August 1776
found the events to be less than farcical.
Bibliography
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Online sources
http://www.revolutionarywaranimated.com/NewYorkAnimation.html
