The British military and navy, in a shocking show of worldwide drive projection and navy logistics, invaded Brooklyn by sea and launched the defeat of George Washington’s military in New York Metropolis on at the present time in historical past, August 22, 1776.
“A naval spectacle of greater than 90 vessels crammed the Narrows [of New York Harbor],” wrote the late historian David McCullough within the e-book “1776,” his seminal work of essentially the most formative yr within the nation’s historical past.
The British through the American Revolution had occupied New York Harbor with a drive of some 400 ships stationed off Staten Island earlier in the summertime.
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“Wave after wave of troopers got here on, their crimson coats and polished bayonets gleaming within the brilliant sunshine,” McCullough wrote of the touchdown at Gravesend Bay, in what’s now the southwestern nook of Brooklyn, simply south of right this moment’s Verrazano Narrows Bridge.
Battle of Lengthy Island — Retreat of the Individuals below Basic Stirling Throughout Gowanus Creek (1877). The battle (also called the Battle of Brooklyn Heights) was fought on August 27, 1776, the primary main battle of the American Revolutionary Warfare to happen after the U.S. declared its independence on July 4, 1776. Engraving after a portray made in 1858 by Alonzo Chappel; from “Our Nation: a Family Historical past for All Readers, from the Discovery of America to the Current Time,” Quantity 2, by Benson J. Lossing (Johnson and Miles, New York, 1877). (Artist Unknown (Picture: The Print Collector/Getty Photographs))
“By midday a totally outfitted Military of 15,000 males and 40 items of artillery had landed and quickly, easily assembled in excellent formation on the adjoining plain.”
The British smashed George Washington’s forces within the Battle of Brooklyn Heights (additionally known as the Battle of Lengthy Island) simply 5 days later, on August 27.
The final then led the miraculous evacuation of his remaining troops below the quilt and darkness and fog throughout the East River to Manhattan on August 29.
David McCullough offers the handle to graduates through the Boston School graduation held in Alumni Stadium. (Nancy Lane/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald by way of Getty Photographs)
“On the Battle of Brooklyn, the Individuals suffered 1,000 casualties to the British lack of solely 400 males,” Historical past.com stories.
The Individuals had been compelled to flee Manhattan, too, in autumn, leaving the town answerable for the British for the whole lot of the battle.
British troopers had been shocked by the wealth of the rebellious American individuals, their fields and farmhouses.
“From the start of the occupation in late August 1776, the British imposed martial legislation on the town,” notes George Washington’s Mount Vernon.
The colonial troops had been repeatedly overwhelmed in 1776 and the failed finish of the American Revolution appeared imminent.
But British troopers, brokers of the world’s strongest empire, had been shocked by the wealth of the rebellious American individuals, their fields and farmhouses.
Illustration of Basic George Washington directing the retreat of the Continental Military throughout the East River, from Brooklyn to Manhattan, after their defeat by the hands of British forces through the battle of Lengthy Island, August 29, 1776. Engraving by JC Armytage from a portray by Wageman. (Interim Archives/Getty Photographs)
The redcoats “regaled themselves with the nice apples, which hung in every single place upon the timber in nice abundance,” wrote McCullough.
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“Virtually in every single place there have been chests of drawers, chairs, mirrors with gold-gilded frames, porcelain and all types of things of one of the best and most costly manufacture.”
He additionally wrote, “The British and Hessian troops alike had been astonished to search out Individuals blessed with such abundance.”
“The lightning fell in lots and sheets of fireside to the earth, and appeared to strike incessantly on each aspect.”
The yr 1776 is remembered reverently right this moment by patriotic Individuals.
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The invasion of Brooklyn, although, marked the start of the darkest months of the American Revolution.
Mom Nature foretold of the August 22 invasion the day earlier than with “a storm as vicious as any in residing reminiscence,” McCullough wrote.
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“The lightning fell in lots and sheets of fireside to the earth, and appeared to strike incessantly on each aspect … Homes burst into flames. Ten troopers camped by the East River had been killed in a single flash.”
“An evening so violent appeared stuffed with portent,” he additionally wrote.
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Solely the miraculous escape throughout the East River below the nostril of the British the evening of August 29 saved the American military to struggle once more.
Washington “was surrounded on all sides with the East River to his again and no possible technique of successful the battle,” writes the American Battlefield Belief in its account of the motion.
The East River escape, it states, “saved the Continental Military and the patriot trigger.”
