|
While the British still underestimated the Americans, they were
not ready to repeat the costly mistake of Bunker Hill. The American
commanders, constantly changing, in ill health and poorly trained,
were not prepared for the type of feints and maneuver that the British
launched. Far from being aliens in a foreign land, many of the British
officers had spent much of their careers in America, sometimes knowing
the ground better than the Patriot generals brought in from other
colonies.
While many of the American soldiers were in relatively strong positions
in Brooklyn Heights, the front line was on the low line of hills
running from the Harbor through Greenwood Cemetery and Prospect
Park.
On the day of the battle, Aug. 27, 1776, Israel Putnam was in overall
command of the 10,000 American troops on Long Island. General John
Sullivan was in command of the advanced position with 3,500 men
on the low hills. Gen. William Alexander, who preferred the title
Lord Stirling, was in charge of the troops along the Gowanus Road
near the Harbor. Unfortunately for the Americans, there were only
tiny units at the passes to the east, especially on the Jamaica
near East New York/New Lots.
About 1 a.m. the British attacked Stirling's advanced positions
and he moved to reinforce his outposts, stopping the English advance
at about 3 a.m.
At Battle Pass, the Americans had chopped down a large oak tree
to block the Flatbush Road where it went through the low hills.
The Americans were also dug in higher up and flanking the pass.
The Hessians, as the German mercenaries were called, began a cannonade
of the pass defenses about 1 a.m.
When General Sullivan arrived about 8 a.m., the Germans were still
firing their guns, but the Americans were holding their ground.
The Americans first learned of impending disaster at 9 a.m. when
the British, who had marched into their rear, fired two guns as
a signal to the Germans to launch a coordinated infantry attack
from the front of the Americans in the pass while the British closed
in on the rear.
The British flanking expedition had started about 9 p.m. the previous
night. They marched through the Jamaica Pass to the east and found
it guarded by only a few men who were easily overpowered.
Now surrounded, the Americans in the pass fought desperately. Some
tried to surrender, but because of language and cultural differences,
many were executed outright. The Americans fought past the time
when the Germans thought it would have been appropriate to surrender,
and in the German mind, lost the opportunity to do so. Many Americans
found themselves surrounded in the woods by rings of Hessian troops
who closed in for the kill with bayonets. Some Americans were able
to fight their way past the British before the envelopment was completely
closed. The fleeing patriots headed back toward the American lines
on Brooklyn Heights.
During the Battle of Long Island, the Americans near the Harbor
had surprised the British with their tenacity. Moving to assist
General Stirling, Colonel Samuel Atlee took possession of a hill
to block the British advance. The British lost over 60 officers
and men in these attacks as the Americans kept the astonished invaders
at bay for most of the morning.
By 11 a.m., the Americans near the harbor could hear firing in
their rear. Realizing that he had been surrounded, Stirling ordered
most of his men to fall back in good order, continuing to retard
the advance of the British in their front. With 400 Maryland Continental
soldiers, he moved to check the enveloping movement in his rear
while the rest of the American army escaped the trap. The British
were approaching the Carilyou house, which dominated the only remaining
line of retreat for the Americans.
Stirling decided to check the British advance by attacking this
building, now known as the Old Stone House.
He launched six attacks, overrunning the house twice. After buying
time for the rest of the American army to escape, and with most
of the Marylanders dead or wounded, Stirling surrendered.
Of the 400 Marylanders, 256 were dead in front of the Old Stone
House and more than 100 others were killed or captured. Only 10
successfully escaped to Brooklyn Heights.
It was apparently this battle at the House, which Washington watched
from within the fortifications on Brooklyn Heights, that led him
to make his famous comment: "Good God, what brave men must
I lose this day!"
Battle Hill has been honored as an important site in the Battle
of Long Island since the fabulous Victorian cemetery Greenwood was
built there in the 19th century. Its role in the battle is slightly
less central and perhaps a bit more legandary than the Old Stone
House or Battle Pass. Fighting did occur on the hill and it has
been the principal shrine to the battle for more than a century.
Here are the main points of the story:
American riflemen had taken up a position on Battle Hill in what
is now Greenwood Cemetery. From the highest point in the area, they
could use their rifles to good advantage against the British officers.
One American rifleman somewhere in the area killed Lt. Col. James
Grant and another officer.
As the British closed in on Battle Hill, they fired a volley into
a treetop, killing an American sniper. The hill was soon surrounded
and the British rushed in. The defenders were shot. The British
would not allow the American sniper to be buried. Accounts say the
tree in which he had been positioned soon blew over in a storm.
At night, his body was moved to the cavity opened when the tree's
roots pulled out of the ground.
Noted on the Altar to Liberty on Battle Hill, in a piece written
by Sarah Day in 1913, are remarks by Major Gen. James Grant and
Lord Sterling, the American commander of the Maryland 400. Grant
had told the House of Commons that if he were given 5,000 men, he
could cross the American continent. On the day of the battle, Sterling
told his men, "I promise you he'll march no farther through
our continent than Brower's Mill Ponds yonder."
At the end of the day, the mill ponds were in British hands, but
the British realized that marching across the continent would be
a difficult affair. Though casualty figures were disputed, the Americans
apparently lost about 1,100 men captured, many of them wounded.
Another 100 wounded were evacuated to within the new American lines.
Estimates are that 300 Americans were killed. The British lost about
370 killed and wounded, plus 23 prisoners who were carried to Brooklyn
Heights in the retreat.
|
