USA > New York > Kings County > Williamsburgh > A history of the city of Brooklyn : including the old town and village of Brooklyn, the town of Bushwick, and the village and city of Williamsburgh > Part 27
USA > New York > Kings County > Bushwick > A history of the city of Brooklyn : including the old town and village of Brooklyn, the town of Bushwick, and the village and city of Williamsburgh > Part 27
USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > A history of the city of Brooklyn : including the old town and village of Brooklyn, the town of Bushwick, and the village and city of Williamsburgh > Part 27
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Let us now return to the operations of the left wing and centre of the British army. Almost simultaneously with the march of the right wing on the previous evening, the left, under Gen. Grant, had advanced towards Brooklyn, partly by the Coast Road," and partly by
1 See his letter to Washington.
? This was not the present road along the verge of the high bank from Yellow Hook to Gowanus; but a road which ran along the slopes further inland, nearly on the line of present Third avenue. (See the Battle Map illustrating this chapter.)
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
way of Martense's Lane.1 At midnight they reached the lower pass in the Lane, where they met a guard (probably a portion of Atlee's Pennsylvania regiment) commanded by Major Bird,2 who retreated before them, and sent an alarm to Gen. Putnam, within the lines. About 3 o'clock on the morning of the 27th, Stirling, who was occu- pying the junction of the Gowanus and Port roads, was informed by Putnam in person of the enemy's advance, and requested to check them with the two regiments nearest at hand. These happened to be Hazlet's Delaware battalion and Smallwood's Maryland regi- ment,3 which promptly turned out, and, with Lord Stirling at their head, were soon en route for the Narrows, closely followed by Gen- eral Parsons with Colonel Huntington's Connecticut regiment of two hundred and fifty men. Within half a mile of the Red Lion Tavern they came up with Col. Atlee's regiment, slowly re- tiring before the advancing British column, whose front was then just coming into sight through the gray dawn of morning, a little in advance of the present entrance to the Cemetery.4 The American line of battle was promptly formed across the Coast Road, reaching from the bay on the east to the crest of the hills which form the
1 In Gen. Stirling's letter to Washington, written from the enemy's fleet, where he was then a prisoner of war, he says "the enemy were advancing by the road from Flatbush to the Red Lion."
2 Major Byrd, or Bird, was an officer in Atlee's regiment, and was taken prisoner.
Also see the following extract from a letter written by an officer in Col. Atlee's bat- talion, dated Aug. 27: "Yesterday about 120 of our men went as a guard to a place on Long Island called Red Lion ; about eleven at night the sentries descried two men coming up a water-melon patch, upon which our men fired on them. The enemy then retreated, and about one o'clock advanced with 200 or 300 men, and endeavored to sur- round our guard, but they being watchful, gave them two or three fires, and retreated to alarm the remainder of the battalion, except one lieutenant and about fifteen men, who have not been heard of as yet. About four o'clock this morning, the alarm was given by beating to arms, when the remainder of our battalion, accompanied by the Delaware and Maryland battalions, went to the place our men retreated from. About a quarter of a mile this side we saw the enemy, when we got into the woods (our battalion being the advanced guard) amidst the incessant fire of their field-pieces, loaded with grape-shot, which continued till ten o'clock," etc .- Onderdonk, sec. 813.
3 The commanders of these regiments were then absent in New York, in attendance upon a court-martial, and did not arrive on the ground until the battle had begun.
4 Authentic neighborhood tradition locates the scene of this first skirmish in the vicinity of 38th and 39th streets, between 2d and 3d avenues. At this spot the old road ran along the edge of a swamp (now filled up, but then known as the swamp of Simon de Hart (ante, pp. 49-55 and map), and here several lives were lost. See, also, Cleveland, in "Greenwood Illustrated," p. 88.
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western boundary of Greenwood Cemetery. Placing Atlee's force in ambush as skirmishers, in an orchard' on the south side of the Coast or Gowanus road, near its intersection with the present 18th street, Stirling, at the head of Hazlet's and Smallwood's regiments, took his position on the slopes of the hills, between 18th and 20th streets, a little to the northwest of "Battle Hill," in Greenwood.2 A company of riflemen were posted, partly on the edge of the woods and partly along a hedge near the foot of the hill, and some of the Maryland regiment took position at a wooded hill on a curve of the road at the foot of the present 23d street, then called " Blokje's
1 This was Wynant Bennett's orchard, a few trees of which yet remain in the south- west part of Greenwood Cemetery.
2 Traditions current among the old inhabitants of the Gowanus neighborhood, and worthy of credit, especially mark "Battle Hill" as a place of historic interest. Here it is said a small body of riflemen had been stationed, among the trees which then crowned that eminence; and when the right wing of the British army (under Corn- wallis), unconscious of their presence, had approached within range, these unerring marksmen commenced their fire, each ball bringing down an officer. Unfortunately for them, the hill was surrounded before they could escape, and they were all shot down. " Here, too, in all probability, they were afterward interred ; and thus enriched by the blood of patriots-thus mingling with their dust-we may safely suppose that this mount of burial received its first consecration."
Furman, in his Notes on Brooklyn, written in 1824, when opportunities for learning authentic facts were good, relates the following : "In this battle, part of the British army marched down a lane or road (Port Road) leading from the Brush tavern (at Valley Grove) to Gowanus, pursuing the Americans. Several of the American riflemen, in order to be more secure, and, at the same time, more effectually to succeed in their de- signs, had posted themselves in the high trees near the road. One of them, whose name is now partially forgotten, shot the English Major Grant: in this he passed unobserved. Again he loaded his deadly rifle and fired : another English officer fell. He was then marked, and a platoon ordered to advance and fire into the tree; which order was immediately carried into execution, and the rifleman fell to the ground, dead. After the battle was over, the two British officers were buried in a field near where they fell, and their graves fenced in with some posts and rails, where their remains still rest. But, 'for an example to the rebels,' they refused to the American rifleman the rites of sepulchre ; and his remains were exposed on the ground till the flesh was rot- ted and torn off his bones by the fowls of the air. After a considerable length of time, in a heavy gale of wind, a large tree was uprooted ; in the cavity formed by which some friends to the Americans, notwithstanding the prohibition of the English, placed the brave soldier's bones to mingle in peace with their kindred earth."
Mr. H. E. Pierrepont, of this city, informs us that along the line of trees and hedge at the funeral entrance of Greenwood Cemetery, the American riflemen, as tradition relates, made a desperate stand. And old Mr. Garret Bergen used to relate, as a boyish recol- lection, that so deadly and determined was their fire, which seemed mainly directed at the officers, that a British officer came rushing into his father's house, and dropping into a chair, exclaimed that "he'd be d-d if he was going to expose himself to that fire ; that the d-d rascals picked out all the officers."
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Barracks."1 Then, as the patriots awaited the enemy's attack, Stir- ling addressed them in a brief and pithy speech, and reminding them that he had heard Gen. Grant, the commander of that advancing col- umn, boast in the British Parliament, only a few months before, that the Americans could not fight, and that, with 5,000 men, he would undertake to march from one end of the continent to the other, he exclaimed, as he pointed to the head of Gowanus Bay, "Grant may have his 5,000 men with him now-we are not so many-but I think we are enough to prevent his advancing further on his march than that mill-pond."
Just then the British vanguard came within range of Atlee's men, who gave them two or three rounds with spirit, and fell back on Blokje's Barracks, which brought him on the left of Stirling, who was on the hills. At this moment Col. Kichline's rifle corps, Col. De Haas' battalion, and Capt. Carpenter, with two field-pieces, came up. Gen. Stirling immediately posted a portion of Kichline's rifle- men behind a hedge at the foot of the hills, and a portion in front of the wood, while a detachment of light troops were ordered to occupy the orchard just left by Atlee, and behind some hedges. It was now broad daylight, and a brisk skirmishing was maintained for two hours between the British and American light troops, until Carpen- ter managed, with some difficulty, to get his two cannon into posi- tion on the hill, and then his fire, combined with Kichline's rifles,
1 Near the intersection of 3d avenue and 23d street, the old road passed over a small hill known as "Blokje's Berg," north of which was a ditch which drained a morass and swamp lying east of said hill, into Gowanus Cove. The road crossed the ditch on a small bridge. The British column is said to have advanced as far as this hill, when it was checked by the Americans who had taken a position on the north side of this ditch and morass, the easterly end of which abutted on the woods. Owing to the strong natural impediment which the morass and ditch afforded to the advance of the British, the American riflemen were enabled to make fearful havoc among the ranks of the foe, before they could be dislodged. Many of the British were killed and buried in pits along the borders of the morass. (See ante, pp. 58, 59.)
In advancing from the Narrows, the British compelled many of the residents to accompany them in the capacity of guides. Peter Bennet, of Gowanus, stated that himself and one of his neighbors, acting in this capacity, under compulsion, in guiding a small detachment across the fields in the vicinity of the swamp at Blokje's Berg, stumbled upon a body of American riflemen, sheltered behind one of the hedges which formed a farm boundary, who shot down nearly the whole body of the enemy in their front, leaving himself and fellow guide standing almost alone. It is needless to say that the few survivors beat a hasty retreat .- Communicated by Hon. T. G. Bergen, of New Utrecht.
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proved too hot for the British, who finally relinquished the orchard, which was immediately reoccupied by Atlee's men. One of Grant's brigades was now formed upon the hills in two lines, some six hun- dred yards opposite to Stirling's right, the balance of his force facing Stirling's left, in a single line, across the Greenwood hills.1 He also pushed forward a howitzer to within three hundred yards of the American right, and a battery of two guns opposite to their left. The battle, however, was rather spiritless, as Stirling's object was mainly to keep Grant in check for a time, while Grant's instructions were not to force an attack until warned by guns from the British right wing that Clinton had succeeded in gaining the rear of the American lines. Meantime, the sky was lowery, and a fresh breeze from the northeast hindered the advance of the British ships, with the exception of the inferior Roebuck, which, beating up against wind and tide, opened a fire upon the Red Hook battery, and received a brisk and effec- tive return.
Leaving Grant and Stirling thus engaged, let us return to the centre of the American lines, on the Flatbush hills, where sunrise found Sul- livan's men yet awaiting, as they had awaited ever since the 23d, the attack of the British force in their front. De Heister, at day- break, opened a cannonade from his position at Flatbush upon the redoubt on the neighboring hill, where Hand's rifle-corps were posted, supported by the troops of Cols. Wyllys and Miles, on the Bedford road. Hearing this, Gen. Sullivan hastened forward with
1 Mr. T. W. Field, the closest student of our Revolutionary battle-ground, and whose monograph on the subject will shortly be put to press, gives the following lucid state- ment, which will do much to clear up the confusion which has hitherto prevailed among historians in regard to the position of the American line on the right :
"Lord Stirling's line at this time formed two sides of a triangle, of which the hypothenuse was a line drawn from the Flatbush Road, near its junction with the Port Road, to the shore of the bay near the foot of Twenty-third street. The obtuse angle at the centre was yet unprotected by the two-gun battery which had been ordered up. From this point to the shore of Gowanus Bay was a distance of half a mile, along which the front was now warmly engaged. The right wing, resting on the bay, occu- pied the deep cut in the road at Blokje's Barracks. The security of this position from an assault in front, increased by a salt creek setting up into the land four or five hun- dred feet, made it one of no insignificant strength, so that, later in the day, the torrent of war sweeping around it left it unassailed. From the top of the hills the line bent northerly along the high ground to near the junction of Fifth avenue and Third street. This portion of the line was comprised of reserves-a portion of the Delaware Battalion and such supporting troops as Putnam could spare from the intrenchments. The left
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four hundred riflemen, on a reconnoissance along the slope of the hills in part of his lines, and to the eastward of his centre, being all this time utterly ignorant of the fact that Clinton had gained his rear. De Heister, however, did not advance, but continued to blaze away at the redoubt, in order to keep the attention of the Americans in that direction, until late in the forenoon, when signal-guns from the northward assured him that Clinton had gained the American rear. Then, ordering Count Donop to charge the redoubt, he followed with the remainder of his division. The redoubt was quickly carried, and the impetuous Hessian yagers eagerly pressed forward into the woods south of the Port Road, driving the American riflemen before them, and taking possession of the coverts and lurking- places from which they dislodged them; so that, in a brief space of time, the latter found themselves more than matched by their German foes. The grenadiers followed the yagers into the woods, admirably preserving their lines, and slowly but surely pressing back the Americans at the point of the bayonet upon the main body, now fatally weakened by the withdrawal of four hundred men, which formed Sullivan's reconnaissance. That general, alarmed by Clinton's cannon, which revealed to him the fact that his flank had been turned, and fully alive to the danger of his position, was now in full retreat for the American lines. But, as his imperilled troops hurried down the rough and densely wooded slope of Mount Pros- pect, they were met on the open plain of Bedford by the British light infantry and dragoons, and hurled back again upon the Hes- sian bayonets, which bristled along the woods. Meanwhile, a heavy force from Clinton and Cornwallis' left, near Bedford, had cut the American lines at the "Clove Road," and Col. Miles' panic-stricken troops were flying for their lives. Parties of Americans, also, retreating from the onset of the Hessians towards the Bedford road,
wing, it will thus be seen, occupied a long, irregular line, in which were breaks of fear- ful length, which the Hessians, later in the day, took fatal advantage of. In conse- quence of the peculiar formation of the line, the extreme left wing was much nearer the extreme right than the centre, and when called into action to re-enforce the front, actually exchanged positions. From this circumstance, the accounts of the Gowanus battle have been found so conflicting as to be almost incomprehensible, and its varying phases can only be thus explained. It was thus that a portion of the Delaware regi- ment met and repulsed the advanced squads of the Second British Grenadiers on the extreme left, near Tenth street and Fifth avenue."
18
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
found themselves face to face with the dense columns of British troops, and turning back in dismay, became mingled hopelessly with the troops from the extreme left of Sullivan's line, who were hurrying forward to escape by the same road. The confused strife-for a battle it was not-which ensued is too terrible for the imagination to dwell upon. Broken up into small handfuls, the unfortunate Americans, fighting hopelessly but desperately, were tossed to and fro between British and Hessian bayonets. No mercy was shown;1 the hireling mercenaries of Britain glutted themselves
1 An officer in Gen. Frazer's Bat., 71st Reg't, writes : "The Hessians and our brave Highlanders gave no quarters ; and it was a fine sight to see with what alacrity they dispatched the rebels with their bayonets, after we had surrounded them so 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 to death all that came into their hands."
Another British officer of rank, and more humane and generous of heart, writes : " The Americans fought bravely, and (to do them justice) could not be broken till they were greatly outnumbered and taken in flank, front and rear. We were greatly shocked at the massacre made by the Hessians and Highlanders, after victory was decided."
Max von Elking (Hist. of the German Auxiliary troops in the North American War of Independence, i. 33 et alios), in reference to this point, says : "Great excitement and rage on the part of the Hessians cannot be denied, but it was chiefly caused by some squads of the enemy (Americans), who, after being surrounded and having asked for quarter, fired again upon the unsuspecting Hessians, who had advanced towards them (to accept their surrender). The British surpassed the Hessians in that respect. Col. von Heeringen, in his letter to Col. von Lossberg, remarks, 'The English did not give much quarter, and continually incited our troops to do the same.' We have seen in his letter, as previously quoted, how treacherously Col. John acted towards the Hes- sian grenadier, and how the Pennsylvania regiment, after having been surrounded, gave another volley. The natural consequence of this was an increase of the fury of well-disciplined troops, unused to such a manner of fighting. That the Hessians did not massacre all their enemies, we have seen from the fact that the regiment Rall, encountering a squad of Americans, made them prisoners without any cruelty." Many Americans did not accept quarter from the Hessians. "They were so much fright- ened,' writes Lieut. Ruffer in his diary, 'that they preferred being shot down to taking quarter, because their generals and officers had told them that they would be hanged.'
" The conquerors showed their contempt for the conquered by putting them to the guns, which they had to draw, over very bad roads, to the ships ; although this appears to have been more the result of necessity than of insolence, as there were no horses, and the English and German troops, already very exhausted, would otherwise have been obliged to do it themselves." "Howe treated the captive generals with great civility ; Stirling and Sullivan dined with him almost every day."
Max von Elking gives what may be considered the Hessian version of this engage- ment : " As soon as Gen. von Heister heard the reports of artillery on his right, and
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with blood. The unequal fight was maintained by the heroic band, with all the ferocity of despair, from nine o'clock until twelve, when
knew, from its direction, that the flanking movement had succeeded, he formed quickly for the attack. In front were the grenadiers, in three divisions, and in front of them, as flankers, a company of yagers under Capt. Wredon. The brigade von Mirbach covered the left flank. The troops advanced bravely, with martial music sounding and colors flying, and ascended the hills in the best order,-the men drag- ging the cannons with the greatest caution through the dense forest. When, with but little loss by the enemy's (American) artillery, the troops had reached the crest of the hill, the line was formed with as much care as on the parade-ground. The Americans (rifle skirmishers) were quickly driven back by the advancing flankers-many were killed or captured-while the Hessian regiments followed with closed ranks and shoul- dered muskets. 'The enemy,' wrote Col. von Heeringen to Col. von Lossberg, ' had almost impenetrable thickets, lines, abatis, and redoubts before him. The riflemen were mostly pierced by the bayonets to the trees. These terrible men deserve more pity than fear,-they want nearly fifteen minutes for loading their pieces, and during that time they feel our balls and bayonets.' The yagers of the left wing, eager for the combat, rushed forward so rapidly that their captain could not restrain them. They penetrated the works of the American encampment, and saw it on their left, a redoubt to their right. The Americans, surprised by the sudden appearance of the Hessians, rallied into groups of fifty to sixty men ; but having no time to form, were shot down, dispersed, or captured. This happened in view of the garrison within the enemy's lines.
" The Americans supposed that the Hessians would not give quarter. Every one of them tried to sell his life as dearly as possible, or to save it by flight, while the Hes- sians grew more exasperated and angry in consequence of this apparently obstinate and useless resistance. Therefore ensued a violent contest, here in larger or smaller crowds, there in wild and irregular rout. A part tried to escape into the woods, but a great many fell into swamps and perished miserably, or were captured. Only a small number succeeded in cutting their way through and reaching their lines. The Hessians fired only once, and then attacked with their bayonets."
Lord Percy writes from the camp at Newtown, Sept. 4: "It was the General's orders that the troops should receive the rebels' first fire, and then rush on them before they had recovered their arms, with our bayonets, which threw them into the utmost con- fusion."
The Hessian account also mentions that "in this first battle in which the auxil- iaries were engaged in the New World, all the German field-officers and aids were on foot, as their own horses had not been brought over from the old country, and new ones had not yet been provided. Col. Donop's aid thus writes in his diary : 'Almost all the officers of the staff and the subaltern officers were on foot, their cloaks rolled up on their shoulders, and a large canteen, filled with rum and water, suspended from their sides. I had to do the same, although I acted as an aid ; and whenever my brigade general, Col. von Donop, wished to send a dispatch, he alighted and gave me his old but good steed, which he had brought over from Hessia.' Another novelty was that many officers, while marching or fighting, had their rifles over their shoulders. Col. Donop himself carried one, and would have probably been lost without it. During the skirmishing a rifleman near by aimed at him, but he, anticipating him, shot him through the head. The officers of skirmishers also carried muskets and bayonets, and the privates were allowed to do what their discipline had previously forbidden, viz., to carry their sabres across their breasts, in order to unbutton, in the unaccustomed heat, their coats, made of a coarse, heavy cloth."
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the survivors surrendered, and the enemy was victorious.1 The few who, nerved by their horrible situation, succeeded in cutting their way through the gleaming wall of bayonets and sabres which en- circled them, were pursued within musket-shot of the American lines by the grenadiers, who were with the utmost difficulty re- strained by their officers from storming Fort Putnam .? Other fugi- tives, less fortunate, were skulking along the hills and seeking, amid the swamps and thickets, a temporary respite from capture. Some in larger bodies, had succeeded in getting through the Hessian skir- mish line, which now occupied the strip of woods between the Port Road and salt meadows, and were pouring across the dam of Freeke's Mill.3 But, upon this confused and panic-stricken crowd, the Hessians opened a destructive fire from some guns posted on the hills, near the Ninth avenue; and to escape this new horror, many diverged to the south ; some being shot and others drowned while struggling through the mud and water of the creeks which abound in that vicinity. Gen. Sullivan was captured by three fusi- leers of the Regiment von Knyphausen, concealed in a cornfield,
1 The most sanguinary conflict occurred after the Americans had left the Flatbush Pass, and attempted to retreat to the lines at Brooklyn. The place of severest contest, and where Sullivan and his men were made prisoners, was upon the slope between the Flatbush avenue and the Long Island railway (Atlantic street), between Bedford and Brooklyn, near "Baker's Tavern," at a little east of the junction of these avenues .- Lossing, Field-Book of Rev., ii. p. 810. "Between Washington avenue and Third street, the low ground in the neighborhood of Greene and Fourth avenues, and the heights overlooking Flatbush."-T. W. Field.
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