CHAP. Two regiments, one of which was Prescott's, were IV. all that could be spared to garrison Governor's 1776. island. August. The American lines in Brooklyn, including angles, and four redoubts which mounted twenty large and small cannon, ran for a mile and a half from Wallabout bay to the marsh of Gowanus cove; they were defended by ditches and felled trees; the counterscarp and parapet were fraised with sharpened stakes. A fortress of seven guns crowned Brooklyn heights. The entrance into the East river was guarded by a battery of five guns at Red-hook. Six incomplete continental regiments, with two of Long Island militia, constituted all the force with which Greene occupied this great extent of works. The expected British reënforcements had arrived the troops with Clinton and Cornwallis on the first, and eleven days later more than twenty-five hundred British troops from England, and more than eighty-six hundred Hessians. Sir Peter Parker had also come, bringing Campbell and Dunmore, who with Tryon and Martin hoped from victory their restoration to their governments. On the fifteenth, the Hessians, who were in excellent health after their long voyage, landed on Staten Island, eager for war. Before a conflict of arms, Lord Howe once more proposed the oftenrejected plan of Lord North. To his messenger, Lord Drummond, who had been allowed to leave the country on conditions that he had broken, Washington made no answer but by a rebuke for his want of "that attention to his parole which belongs to the character of a man of strict honor;" IV. 1776. and lest the sight of the flag of truce should lull CHAP. the army into a fatal security, on the twentieth he announced, "that no offer of peace had been August made, that the army might expect an attack as soon as the wind and tide should prove favorable, and that every man should prepare his mind and his arms for action." To congress he on the same day wrote frankly, that it would not be possible to prevent the landing of the British on Long Island; "however," he said, "we shall attempt to harass them as much as possible, which will be all that we can do." Just at this time Greene became ill of a raging fever, and owed his life to rest, change of air, and the unwearied attention of Morgan, his physician. The loss of his service was irreparable; for the works in Brooklyn had been built under his eye, and he was familiar with the environs. His place was, on the twentieth, assigned to Sullivan. Very heavy rains delayed the movements of the British. About nine on the morning of the twenty-second, the men-of-war moved near the shore in Gravesend bay, to protect the landing of more than fifteen thousand men, chiefly British troops, from Staten Island. The English and the Highlanders, with the artillery, consisting of forty cannon, were the first to disembark; last came Donop's brigade of grenadiers and yagers, in large flat-boats, standing in the clear sun, with their muskets in hand, in line and order of battle. As it was at first reported to Washington that the British intended by a forced march to surprise the lines 1776. August. CHAP. at Brooklyn, he at once reënforced them with six IV. regiments; before sending more, he waited to be certain that the enemy were not making a feint upon Long Island, with the real design to fall directly upon New York. The troops went off in high spirits, and all the army was cheerful; but the inhabitants were struck with terror, and could hardly be persuaded that their houses would not be burnt in case of the retreat of the American army; women and children spread dismay by their shrieks and wailing, and families deserted the city, which they were not to revisit for seven years. The main body of the British army spread itself out upon the plain which stretches from Gravesend bay towards the east; the country people could offer no resistance; the British camp was thronged by farmers of the neighborhood, wearing badges of loyalty and seeking protection; while the patriots took to flight, driving cattle before them, and burning all kinds of forage. Cornwallis with the reserve, two battalions of infantry and the corps of Germans, advanced to Flatbush. Hand's Pennsylvania riflemen retired before him, burning stacks of wheat and hay on their march; his artillery drove the Americans from their slight barrier within the village to the wooded heights beyond, where in the afternoon they were strengthened by fresh arrivals from the lines. In the following days, during which Washington divided his time between the two islands, encounters took place between the advanced parties of the two armies; in these the American riflemen, IV. poor as were their arms, proved their superiority CHAP. as skirmishers; on the twenty-fourth, Donop was 1776. aimed at and narrowly escaped death. August On that day, Putnam, in right of his rank as 24. second to Washington, took the command on Long Island, but with explicit instructions to guard the passes through the woods; while the New York congress sent independent orders to Woodhull, a provincial brigadier, to drive off the horses, horned cattle, and sheep, and destroy the forage, which would otherwise have fallen into the possession of the enemy. 66 On the twenty-fifth, two more brigades of Hessians with Von Heister came over to Flatbush, increasing the force of Howe on Long Island to upwards of twenty thousand" rank and file.1 It was the most perfect army of that day in the world, for experience, discipline, equipments, and artillery; and was supported by more than four hundred ships and transports in the bay; by ten ships of the line and twenty frigates, besides bombketches, galiots, and other small vessels. Among them were the "Phoenix" and the "Rose," which, after repelling an attack from six American galleys 1 Howe, in the Observations annexed to his Narrative, p. 45, wrote thus: "I landed upon Long Island with between 15,000 and 16,000 rank and file, having left the remainder of the army for the defence of Staten Island; my whole force at that time consisted of 20,121 rank and file, of which 1677 were sick." It is charitable to suppose that his memory was for the moment confused; on August 27, 1776, his rank and file amounted to VOL. IX. 8 24,247, apart from the royalist force 25. CHAP. in Tappan bay, and narrowly escaping destruction IV. by fire-ships, had taken advantage of a strong wind 1776 and tide to descend the river and rejoin the fleet. 25. Against this vast armament the Americans on the August island, after repeated reënforcements, were no more than eight thousand men, most of whom were volunteers or militia; and they had not the aid of a single platoon of cavalry, nor of one ship of war. The unequal armies were kept apart by the ridge which runs through Long Island to the southwest, and, at the distance of two miles from the American lines, throws out to the north and south a series of hills, as so many buttresses against the bay. Over these very densely wooded heights, which were steep and broken, three obvious routes led from the British encampments to Brooklyn: the one which followed a lane through a gorge south of the present Greenwood cemetery, to a coast-road from the bay to Brooklyn ferry, was guarded by Pennsylvanian musketeers and riflemen under Atlee and Kichline; across the direct road to Brooklyn the regiments of Henshaw of Massachusetts and Johnston of New Jersey lay encamped, at the summit of the ridge on Prospect hill overlooking Flatbush; while a third, the "clove" road, which diverged from the second, and a little further to the east descended into the village of Bedford, was guarded chiefly by Connecticut levies, and infantry from Pennsylvania. Besides these, three miles to the east of Bedford, on a road from the hamlet of Jamaica to Brooklyn, there was a pass which seemed even more easy of defence than the others. The whole number of the Americans sta |