Us Army - Artillery Retreat from Long Island
The Battle of Brooklyn, also known as The Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the entire American Revolutionary War, takes place just 1 ½ months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and includes about 37,000 combatants on both sides. The result is a crushing defeat for the Continental Army. They fight at the Gowanus Road and Flatbush, and finally at the Continental stronghold at Fort Greene and the other forts at Brooklyn Heights.
The main battle on August 27, 1776 takes only 9 hours but encompasses about half of the area of today’s Brooklyn. The British night march through the undefended Jamaica Pass (the furthest of the four passes through the Heights of Guan) encircles and defeats the Continental defenders. Among the many captured Continentals are General John Sullivan and General William Alexander (Lord Stirling).
After the main battle, George Washington and the Continental Army are trapped at Brooklyn Heights. The American Revolution could have ended there but General Howe’s caution and favorable weather allow George Washington, under the cover of night, to safely evacuate our 9,500 men.
The story of this fight is the story of inexperience vs experience in battle, mistakes, bad luck, good luck, and eventual salvation. The British Generals present have an average military experience of more than 30 years while the Continental Generals have an average experience of 2 years.
Congress wants New York City defended. John Adams calls the Hudson River “a kind of key to the whole continent” because it goes north to Canada. The British, with control of the Hudson can cut the colonies nearly in two. This view is not unanimous, however. John Jay proposes burning New York City to the ground and having the Army defend from the safety of the Ramapo mountains.
George Washington then decides to defend three islands (Manhattan, Staten Island and Long Island) against the mightiest naval armada ever assembled in history to that time without having any warships of his own. The East River is one mile wide and the Hudson is two miles wide. This single decision foretells the outcome.
The Continental Army fortifies Brooklyn Heights, the Battery, Governors Island and Fort Washington (in Manhattan opposite today’s Fort Lee NJ), and waits. The fortifications are new, as New York City had never needed fortifications before. Britain, its long-time defender, had become its enemy.
By July 12th the bulk of the British armada has arrived. The total force will include 400 ships and 32,000 troops under the overall command of Admiral Richard Howe, General William Howe’s brother. That day the frigates Phoenix and Rose sail up the Hudson River towards the Tappan Zee Bridge. The Continental batteries fire on them with little effect. An ominous breach, it spells trouble ahead. If two ships could so easily slip through the defenses, why not twenty or forty ships, turning lower Manhattan and Brooklyn into a trap.
George Washington encounters many difficulties in New York City.
· Lack of an adequate spy network. Despite the signing of the Declaration of Independence, two thirds of the colonists are “Loyalists” who want to remain with Britain. The majority of New York residents are Loyalists.
· Management of troops in an urban environment. Many troops became ill with typhus and other “camp fevers”, venereal disease, and drunkenness.
· George Washington dismisses his only cavalry, the 500 strong Connecticut Light Horse. Concerned about feeding the horses, and not knowing the terrain in Brooklyn, he doesn’t yet know he will want to defend a 10 mile long ridge (Heights of Guan).
On August 22nd, the British land at Graves End Bay, near present day Fort Hamilton with 24,000 troops, staging a precision joint Naval and Army invasion. While feinting at Gowanus and Flatbush, Generals Howe and Clinton lead the main army on an all-night march through the undefended Jamaica Pass, the furthest of the four passes through the Heights of Guan.
The British surprise, surround, and defeat the Continental Army on the morning of August 27th, killing many and taking more than 1,000 prisoners.
Toward the end of the battle, at the Gowanus Road, William Alexander (Lord Stirling), although surrounded, leads the “Maryland 400” in an attack on the overwhelmingly superior British position. This delaying action allows the bulk of his troops to escape over the marshy Gowanus Canal to the safety of the Brooklyn Heights fortifications. Five times they attack the British and five times they are repulsed with heavy loss of life. At the end, 265 of the Marylanders lay dead at the old stone farm house.
Washington, observing all this from his high ground command post at Cobble Hill, says “Good God! What brave fellows I must this day lose.”[1]
The rest of the Continental Army along with George Washington are holed up in the Forts at Brooklyn Heights. Although the British crush the outer defenses along the heights, several pieces of good luck help the Continentals:
1. The British ships are never able to enter the East River opposite Brooklyn Heights due to a strong wind from the Northeast. Had the British done so, it is probable the American Revolutionary War would have ended there and then with the capture of George Washington and his army.
2. On hand is a regiment of Marblehead Massachusetts sailors. These same sailors 4 months later will ferry George Washington and his army over the Delaware on Christmas 1776.
3. General Howe does not press the attack on the inner fortifications of Brooklyn Heights. Howe has many reasons to delay, but that delay may have cost him the Revolution.
· The troops are fatigued having suffered through an all-night march the night before the battle
· They have more than 1,000 prisoners
· The wind could change soon, allowing the navy to enter the East River, giving George Washington no choice but surrender.
· Howe’s experience at Bunker Hill
At the Battle of Bunker Hill, in June 1775, the British suffered the loss of many men by charging a fortified position.[2]
See my previous article – “The Battle of Bunker Hill”.
Howe had personally led the first charge up the hill and suffered devastating losses. He was seen at one point alone on the hill, surrounded by his dead and wounded soldiers, with a look of horror on his face. He later said that this victory was “too dear bought”. Many historians believe he did not want to repeat this disaster.
On the night of June 29th, the Continental Army under cover of night, begins the evacuation from Brooklyn heights to Lower Manhattan. The Marblehead sailors make eleven round trips through swift and dangerous currents and get all 9,500 troops, the horses, the canon and supplies over to Manhattan without a single loss of life.
The British see the empty forts in the morning and are astounded. Later, military historians see this evacuation to be an extraordinary feat of military maneuver. Incredibly, General Cornwallis, who witnesses George Washington’s night escape first hand, allows the same type of night evacuation in Trenton on January 2nd, 1777.
In another stroke of luck, the wind dies totally that morning preventing the British from immediately following
Thus ends the Battle of Brooklyn.
One British military critic later said that this evacuation of 9,500 men, horses and equipment without a single loss of life, done at night through treacherous currents, “…should hold a high place among military transactions”[3]
Importantly, While the British win the battle they do not end the war.
The New York Campaign goes from bad to worse for the Continental Army. George Washington finally evacuates his army from New York and retreats through new Jersey to Pennsylvania.
Although he has lost 90% of his army, he never gives up.
Out of the ashes of this defeat arises the determination of George Washington and the Continental Army. They persevere through great difficulties ahead and turn the tide only 4 months later. Crossing the Delaware in a Nor’easter on Christmas 1776, they surprise and defeat the Hessians at Trenton, New Jersey. In ten crucial days the Continental Army wins three battles in Trenton and Princeton (January 3rd 1777), changing the course of history and enabling the birth of our free nation.
Barry Singer
West Windsor, New Jersey
The author, a volunteer with the Historical Society of Princeton, is a speaker about the American Revolution and conducts historic walking tours in Princeton, New Jersey
[1] John J. Gallagher, The Battle of Brooklyn 1776, Da Capo Press, 1995, Pg. 133
[2] See my previous article, “The Battle of Bunker Hill, June 14, 2015
[3] John J. Gallagher, The Battle of Brooklyn 1776, Da Capo Press, 1995, Pg. 153, 154