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C.C. I.ord Cornwall with the Reserve , & Battalions of light Infantry. Col' Denop's Corps, & 6 Field Pieces on the 91" D.D. L.'General de Heister, with his & Brigades on the 26 F.F .. Lord Cornwallis with the British on the 26
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Position of the British Army from the senf August to the 86
F. L'General Clinton with the Van, consisting of Light - Dragoons &. Brigade of Light Infantry , the Reserve imder Jord Cornwallis texvepting the 42: Regiment which was posted on the Left of the Hefrians ) the First Brigade & the 11" Rea' with us Field Pieces.
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MM_My' Cen'Grant with the q"A" 5" Brwades. the 17" Rea" & 2 Companies of N. York Provincials with ro Pieces of Cannon .attucking a large, Corps on the Enemy's Right N.N. 1 Party of the 2' Grenadiers, supported by the 71" Reg " DO O Small Parties of the Enemy on the Coasts. nho on the cypreach of the Beats.retirad w the Woody Heights
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IPLAN Of . NEW YORK ISLAND: wub part of LONG ISLAND, STATEN ISLAND GEAST . NEW JERSEY, with a particular Description of the ENGAGEMENT on the Woody Heights of Long Ifland, between FLATBUSH and BROOKLYN, on the 27"? of Auguft 1776. between HIS MAJESTY'S FORCES Commanded by General HOWE. and the . AMERICANS under . Major General PUTNAM. Shewing also the Landing ef die BRITISH ARANY on New-York Hand, and the Taking of the CITY of NEW YORK &c. on the isch of September following, with the Subsequent Drijposition of Both the Armies. Engraved & Publifid zeventig to . It of Parliament Det"0"76 . WTF. den jucefor to the late . MEN Jefferys. Geographer to the Kung , Charing Cres I. ONDON.
FACSIMILE OF MILITARY MAP PREPARED FOR THE USE OF THE BRITISH ARMY.
il Elizabeth Town
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The New Lots
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CHAPTER V.
THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND
HE first battle for Independence was the Battle of Long Is- land. Only then had Independence become an issue. The Boston Port Bill, the investment of Boston by a body of troops, were in punishment of Massachusetts for her stand regarding the importation of tea. The Boston Tea Party of Decem- ber 16, 1773, was regarded as an act of overt rebellion. The Battle of Lexington was the opposition to a military investment that aimed to embrace the province. The attempt to seize the military stores at Concord, and its resistance, were both acts of war. But after Bunker Hill, and even after the evacuation of Boston, the purpose of Inde- pendence had not yet so shaped itself but that with proper manage- ment and a reasonable king, reconciliation might have been effected. The purpose of the British government had been only to punish Massachusetts. They had not foreseen that the whole country would rise in resentment. The military punishment had led to the revela- tion of a new situation. The boldness and effectiveness of the resist- ance showed a people who seemed ready to become a nation. The king and ministers now for the first time saw what they had on hand : not chastisement, but subjugation; not a demonstration of force, with a sharp blow or two here and there where demonstration was not enough to overcome; but a serious war, requiring the full exercise of England's power by land and sea. And on the other hand, the logic of the situation had forced the colonies to face the question of nationhood, that is, of Independence. In June, 1776, that problem was squarely propounded; on July 4, it was announced to the world that the issue had been accepted. Washington, in the general order calling the troops together on July 9 to hear the reading of the Decla- ration, called attention to the fact that the struggle of the soldiers had now assumed a wholly different phase. And the first time they confronted the enemy under the consciousness of this altered con- dition of things, in the noble hope and with the brave purpose of Independence for their country, the creation and establishment of a new nation; was at the Battle of Long Island, as here they fought and died and bled in the trenches and marshes. upon the hills and amid the woods that were later covered by the prosaic brick and mortar
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of the City of Brooklyn, or that are still left with the touch of nature upon them in her beautiful parks and famous cemeteries.
For that heavier blow which England now intended and saw must be struck to retain her authority, the very center and heart of the American Colonies was selected. It needed no scout or spy to tell Washington that after Boston the British army would attack New York. And he made his arrangements accordingly. The question only remained : how would they direct their assault? By water, there was nothing to oppose the enemy's navy. Yet they could hardly be expected to rely on that arm of service alone. If a land attack were contemplated, the closest approach to the city was only possible from the Long Island quarter. Besides, it was well understood by the Brit- ish authorities and the commanders that there was a strong Tory element in the counties immediately adjoining the East River. From that side an attack was therefore to be expected and must be provided for.
The line of defense on Long Island suggested itself by the conve- nient topographical conditions existing between Wallabout Bay and Gowanus Creek. As we stand in the midst of the houses and streets of the later city we can not realize these conditions nor their adapted- ness to military defense. Yet a glance at the map, and a careful ob- servance of elevations and grades here and there will bring the an- cient state of things back sufficiently to appreciate the earlier situa- tion. As before remarked, it is not so much of a walk from the Navy Yard along Hudson Avenue and Nevins Street, to Union Street. The general line of trenches and breastworks ran southwesterly at no great distance anywhere from these two thoroughfares. The exact point where the entrenchments crossed Fulton Street could, until late. ly, be identified by the quaint little retreat called " The Abbey," its site being occupied now by the Montauk Theater. Stretching out to the most considerable easterly distance from this line were the work's on the present bold elevation known as Fort Greene. It was called Fort Putnam then, and was indeed a very commanding position. Looking out toward the country, the view would sweep clear to Bedford and beyond. To the right the whole remainder of the lines could be observed, and the approach of the enemy detected. From the rear the supplementary forts on the heights, and the part of Manhattan Island above the then City of New York would come within the circle of the vision. A square or " oblong " redoubt or blockhouse guarded the line at Hudson and DeKalb Avenues. Next came Fort Greene, a small inclosure planted with cannon, equidistant from the Jamaica Road (Fulton Street), and Brouwer's Mill, at the head of Gowanus Creek. Near the latter point, thus the extreme right of the Ameri- can lines, and the southerly end, stood Fort Box, a little stronghold with a battery, on a hill between Smith and Court streets, near First Place. Issuing from their trenches at this extremity the troops would
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march down toward the mill, and find the causeway that made the mill pond, with its bridge, if kept intact, very convenient for sallies and returns. A few hundred yards further down was the Yellow Mill, utilizing a lower branch or bay of Gowanus Creek as a mill pond. Here was another causeway and bridge, serviceable for the passage of troops. We have elsewhere stated that Brouwer's Mill stood on what is now Union Street, between Bond and Nevins streets. The " Yellow Mill " was located, in modern terms, on the northeast side of First Street, if it were cut through to the canal, between Sec- ond and Third avenues, if the former were more than a street on paper. It is well to bear in mind the location of these two mills, for they figure in the most thrilling episode of that eventful day.
Inside of these defenses were again three fortified positions. One was Fort Stirling, upon the bold bluffs immediately above the Ferry, on what is now Columbia Street, between Orange and Clark streets. A second, almost due south, occupied the elevation which the trans- formations of city life have not yet disguised on Atlantic Avenue, where Clinton Street crosses it. Here, then, was a small steep hill familiarly known as " Cobble Hill." The intervening country be- tween the two strongholds could be raked by the fire of each. Lastly, at Red Hook, was a covered battery intended to intercept the passage of ships through Buttermilk channel. Fulton Street to Red Hook Lane, and the latter, as it then ran, gave convenient access to and communication between these three inner positions. Outside the lines nature itself had thrown up bulwarks against the coming foe. These were the wooded hills, whose slopes are still so easily discerned in various sections of Brooklyn; in South Brooklyn, from Eighth, or Ninth Avenue, Greenwood and Prospect Park, down toward Thir l Avenue; along Flatbush Avenue, from the Plaza down; and toward Bedford in the long ridge of Sackett Street Boulevard, or Eastern Parkway, which slopes down toward Flatbush and New Lots on one side, and back toward Fulton Avenne on the other. These formidable hills no assailant would dream of attempting, if well beset with troops. But there were three or four passes which invited special attack, and which, if taken, would give access to the inner lines. Beginning on the enemy's left as he approached the American army there was first the Gowanus, or Shore Road, leading along the shore of the Bay. It also communicated with the interior country, or New Utrecht, by Martense's Lane, a gorge in the hills just south of Greenwood, which made its junction with the Shore Road about where Thirty-fifth Street is now. On this lane, between where Fomth and Fifth avenues are now, was situated the Red Lion Tavern. The next passage to be guarded, or forced, was Flatbush Pass, now called " Battle Pass," in Prospect Park. The road which is now Flatbush Avenue did not go straight up the hill as it does now alongside the Park. It passed into the latter where
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the Flatbush entrance is now, and a short distance within, as we follow the drive to the right, we can see where it wound through a valley between the hills on the left, on which the Park's slight at- tempt at a menagerie has perched itself, and the elevations on the right, which then reached their greatest height on Mt. Prospect, on a spur of which commanding the valley stood a small redoubt. A third passage was called the Bedford Pass, where the Clove Road boldly entered the hills from Flatbush, and descended on the other side into Bedford village, between the present Nostrand and Bedford avenues. There was a fourth, the Jamaica Pass, far to the east, through which the Jamaica Road wound its way inside of the hill country.
These defenses had all been carefully planned and occupied, and the whole situation carefully studied by Gen. Nathanael Greene, who won such fame later by his masterly tactics in the Southern campaign. While the movements of the enemy were still uncertain, Washing- ton was cautious about sending too many troops across the East River. But when it was finally clear that Long Island was to be the object of their attack, he sent all the men he could possibly spare. The number nominally at his disposal amounted to nearly twenty thousand, but those actually fit for service in and about New York did not count more than ten thousand, and seven thousand of these were concentrated behind the works on the island. To oppose these limited numbers the British brought over an immense army, the larg- est that figured in any battle of the Revolution before or after. As was stated in our previous volume, General Howe had collected on Staten Island a force of more than thirty-three thousand men. Of these, nearly twenty-five thousand were in actual condition for battle. On August 22, 1776, under cover of the fleet under Admiral Howe, his brother, fifteen thousand troops, commanded by Generals Clinton, Lord Cornwallis, Lord Percy, and Grant, were carried in transports from Staten Island and landed in Gravesend Bay, on the territory of New Utrecht. The old Cortelyou house at Nayack, a hundred years old then, and standing yet just around the corner from Fort Hamilton, witnessed this portentous invasion of the enemy. From its porch the whole semi-circular sweep of the Bay is seen at a glance, and from a point immediately opposite the house, nearly around to the line of Gravesend the transports landed their cargoes of gaily uniformed sol- diers, the bluff at the Fort gradually sloping down to the level of the beach to the left of the old dwelling. General Grant's division camped in the vicinity of the Narrows, at equal distances to the right and left of the Cortelyou place. Lord Cornwallis's division marched straight upon Flatbush along the New Utrecht Road and encamped there. The remaining forces under Percy and Clinton, with Howe in chief com- mand, followed the King's Highway past the then New Utrecht Church, and the de Sille house, and, rounding the present site of the church, went on to Flatlands. The troops extended their lines along
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all the roads, maintaining constant communications between these villages. The landing of the British had been perfectly un- molested. Between the New Utrecht Road and the Shore Road one can easily see to-day that there stretches a decided ridge. This was a range of wooded hills at this time. Upon its ex- tremity near Fort Hamilton was stationed a single regiment, Colonel Hand's Pennsylvania riflemen. He, of course, retired through the cover of the woods, yet making excursions so far as he dared, to destroy the standing grain on the farms, and thus reduce the supplies of the enemy. General Woodhull, commanding the mil- itia of Queens and Suffolk, had also been active in driving all avail- able cattle away before the approach of the enemy, and he was now at Jamaica, waiting for further instructions. Three days after the landing of the English troops, five thousand Hessians were landed in the same spot, nearer the Gravesend line. They were commanded by General De Heister. This made twenty thousand troops ready for battle under Howe's command on the island. The Hessians marched through Gravesend and so along the King's Highway, through Flatlands to Flatbush, where they were ordered to take the place of Cornwallis's division in holding the place. There was great commotion in the quiet old towns among the farming people. It was a beautiful summer's day when the British landed, and as the troops advanced many a family put all their movable belongings upon the clumsy farmwagon, and drove away with their best team hitched before it. They came back mostly to houses, barns, and crops burned by their fellow-countrymen, or leveled and ruined by the artillery or the tramping of contending hosts.
Obviously, it was not within their intrenchments that the Ameri- cans were going to await the attack of the invaders. They must be kept on the other side of the bold hills so easily defended. Indeed, the problem simplified itself merely to the proper guarding of the few passes that have been mentioned. Colonel Knowlton and his Con- necticut Rangers, soon to be immortalized on Harlem Heights, were stationed at the Flatbush Pass, with three other regiments,-a Massa- chusetts, a Rhode Island, and a New Jersey. On the Gowanus Road were placed Colonel Hand's regiment, Altee's Pennsylvania infantry. another detachment of Pennsylvanians, and some New York troops At the Bedford Pass were two Connecticut regiments, while a little eastward of the same was posted another Pennsylvania regiment un- der Colonel Miles. The general command of all the forces was to have been General Greene's, but just at this time he was dangerously ill of a bilious fever, hence another must needs take his place, and General Sullivan was selected by Washington. Sullivan does not seem to have been a man of the steadiest judgment. He knew very little of the topography of the region to be defended, and he can not have studied it with great assiduity after his appointment, for it would seem as if
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scarce five minutes' poring over a good map would have sufficed to reveal the peculiarities of a situation so striking and demanding con- centration of attention upon so few strategie points, and yet he failed to seize one crucial point in the situation. But Sullivan did not command on the day of battle. Washington spent all of the 26th reconnoitering and examining the defenses, and probably some defect in the arrangements led him to send over General Putnam, who, as senior officer, superseded Sullivan. It is said in some papers bearing on the events of the fateful day that attention was called to the vital spot at the east which was neglected, and whose neglect made defeat so signal and so complete. But the blame has not yet been finally fixed in the court of history, and we certainly are glad enough to leave the vexed question without argument here.
The plan of attack of the Brit- ish was threefold. General Grant, with about six thousand troops, was to advance along the Gowan- us Road. De Heister, with his five thousand Hessians, was to move from his position at Flatbush up- on the Flatbush Pass. Cornwallis, Percy, and Clinton were concen- trated at Flatlands in Howe's im- mediate vicinity, for another movement eastward. General Grant was to make the first at- tack, to be followed shortly by the opening of hostilities on the part of the Hessians. It may be re- GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. marked here, in explanation, if not in extenuation, of the cruel- ties perpetrated by the Hessians this day, that they had been told by the English soldiers that the Americans had declared that they would give no quarter to the Hessians.
Grant's division began its march about midnight, part going along the New Utrecht Road and Martense's Lane, part along the bay shore. As the two met at the Gowanus Road, near the Red Lion Tavern, some of Altee's regiment stationed there slowly retreated before the unknown force. The pickets that had been driven in had brought the news of the enemy's approach to General Putnam, whereupon he hastily sent General Stirling with two of the best regiments to oppose the foe. Lord Stirling was the son of James Alexander, the lawyer, who became famous in the Zenger case. William Alexander im- bibed his father's notions of independence, and threw in his for- tunes with the patriots. In some way he became the titular or actual
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successor of the Earl of Stirling in Scotland, whose ancestor had been given the patent of all Long Island by Charles I. As Stirling chose the patriot side, his succession was never allowed in Great Brit- ain, but the patriots industriously used the title, and plain William Alexander was always Lord Stirling to them. He was the father of those charming ladies, Lady Kitty Duer and Lady Mary Watts, of whom mention is made in all accounts of society in the early days of the Republic. The regiments he took with him on his errand of peril and glory were Hazlett's Delaware and Smallwood's Maryland. At about Twenty-third Street and Third Avenue. they met Atlee's slow- ly retiring Pennsylvanians. Lord Stirling then fell back a little further and disposed his small force on the slope of the hill from Third Avenue toward Greenwood, and between Eighteenth and Nine- teenth streets. Atlee's men were posted on the right, almost resting on the Bay, which here comes up nearly to Third Avenue. Stirling himself was on the high ground. Here Captain Carpenter was sta- tioned with two field-pieces. As the British vanguard came near enough to make the fire effective. Atlee's regiment gave them two or three volleys, which thinned their ranks amazingly and made them pause in their advance. As daylight increased, Carpenter got his two cannon into a good position on an eminence facing Battle Hill in the cemetery. Now began what a military expert calls a fine artillery dluel. The American gunners, with their two pieces, displayed such skill and alertness, that Grant's forces suffered very greatly, and were effectively held in check, although Stirling had scarcely fifteen hun- dred men to oppose the six thousand of the enemy. Atlee's men, whose place had been taken by Kichline's riflemen on Third Avenue, were moved to the left of Stirling on the high ground, and here on Battle Hill, just within the cemetery bounds now, they fought with such vigor and address that the British were fain to abandon that advantageous position. What with Carpenter's work, Kichline's riflemen at the bottom of the hill. and Atlee's at the top. Grant. with all his superiority in numbers, withdrew to some of the hills south- ward, where his men enjoyed the shelter of the woods. Yet it caused some surprise to Stirling that he made no more vigorous push than he did. At about S a.m. hostilities here had almost ceased, as the enemy did not seem inclined to continue the fight. The explanation of the strange apathy was at hand.
Meantime the Hessians had begun the attack from Flatbush. To the American regiments here posted Hand's Pennsylvanians had been added. They took a position at the redoubt on the spur of Mount Prospect, commanding the valley pass. The Hessians did not attempt to gain possession of this pass, but were content to train their artillery upon the redoubt, firing with great industry, but effecting very little. At the sound of the guns, General Sullivan marched out from the entrenchments toward the center at the Flatbush Pass with four hun-
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dred riflemen. But the Hessians remained in the plains and made no advance; another strange exhibition of apathy which received a terrible explanation all too soon.
At nine o'clock in the evening of the 26th, the combined forces of Clinton, Cornwallis, and Percy, accompanied by the commander-in- chief, and numbering nine thousand men, guided by Tories, or by Whigs forced into the service, advanced northeasterly from Flat- lands toward the New Lots of Flatbush township. It was their ob- ject to turn the flank of the Americans, supposing, of course, that they would find the Jamaica Pass strongly occupied. They did not imagine that the movement would enable then to execute a maneuver so much more fatal to the patriots, placing themselves in their rear. Follow- ing the King's Highway until they came about due west of Schoon- maker's Bridge on the New Lots Road, the British left the main road and began to march across the fields. Had they continued on the highway they would have descended upon the Jamaica Road (Fulton Avenue), between Bedford and the Jamaica Pass, by means of the old Hunter's Fly Road. But on the supposition that this part of the American position was as well guarded as the others, this direct march would have been unadvisable. They could have continued along the New Lots Road and turned up Wyckoff's Lane to the Ja- maica Road beyond the Pass; but that would have taken them too far from the point they wished to attack. Hence they made a beeline across country direct toward Howard's Tavern, a part of which stood till within a few years ago, just where Broadway and Fulton Avenue form their junction, and the Jamaica Plank Road begins. As they approached the tavern the main body of the troops came to a halt upon Daniel Rapalje's farm, still owned (though divided) among his descendants. They were now a little east of the Jamaica Pass, and their progress had been perfectly unnoticed. From the hills in Pros- pect Park their entire march could have been observed if they had carried lights, but they had taken good care not to do so, and left their campfires burning at Flatlands to deceive the patriots. Still suppos- ing the Pass guarded, they forced Howard and his son, on pain of deatlı, to guide a reconnoitering party. They led them along the Rock- away Path up the heights now within Evergreens Cemetery, whence from a tree in front of the present Chapel they could look down into the Jamaica Pass. There was no one there but a party of six Ameri- can officers on patrol duty. These were soon seized, and information of the astounding neglect of the Americans conveyed to Clinton, who was in the van. He at once sent forward a battalion to occupy the Pass. A quarter of a mile or less to the left of Howard's Tavern, the Jamaica Road made a turn between two low hills, thence continuing westward almost straight to Bedford and Brooklyn. The road is almost obliterated from the face of the city, but, fortunately, a small portion of it is left. It can be seen branching at an acute
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