The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Vol. 2 (of 2) / or, Illustrations, by Pen And Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the War for Independence

by Benson John Lossing

* Explanation of the Plan.—Figure 1, Gravesend beach, where the British landed; 2, Denyse's (Fort Hamilton); 3, Martense's Lane, along the southern boundary of Greenwood Cemetery, extending from Third Avenue, at the lower end of Gowanus Bay, to the Flatbush and New Utrecht road; 4, Red Lion tavern; 5, Grant's forces; 6, Stirling's forces; 7, Stirling's last encounter; 8, Cortelyou's house; 9, Port or Mill road; 10, Flatbush pass; 11, Americans retreating across the creek; 12, Party of Americans covering the retreat; 13, Box Fort; 1-1, Brower's mill; 15, Fort Greene, near the mill-pond; 16, Cork-screw Fort; 17, Baker's tavern, near the junction of Fulton and Flatbush Avenues; 18, British redoubt, cast up after the battle; 19, Fort Putnam, now Fort Greene; 20, Stone church, where Washington held a council of war; 21, Fort Stirling; 22, The ferry, foot of Fulton Street; 23, Fort at Red Hook; 24, Corlaer's Hook; 25, Battery, foot of Catharine Street; 20, Panlus' Hook; 27, Governor's Island; 28, The Narrows; 29, Vandeventer's Point; 30, Shoemaker's Bridge, near New Lots. Bennet's Cove is near figure 4, where, it is said, three thousand British troops landed on the morning of the twenty-seventh of August, the day of the battle, a a, track of the left wing of the British army, under the immediate command of General Howe, from Flatlands, by way of the present East New York (Howard's half-way house) to Brooklyn. While in possession of New York and vicinity, the British so strengthened Fort Stirling, on Brooklyn Heights, that it assumed the character of a regular fortification, with four bastions, similar to Fort George, in New York. They also east up a line of intrenchments along the brow of the hill from the Heights to the present Navy Yard.

March of the British.—Advantage gained.—Advance of Grant toward Gowanus.

on New York Bay; and the right wing, designed for the principal performance in the drama about to be opened, was composed of choice battalions, under the command of Clinton, Cornwallis, and Percy, accompanied by Howe, the commander-in-chief. While Grant and De Heister were diverting the Americans on the left and center, the right was to make a circuitous march by the way of Flatlands, to secure the roads and passes between that village and Jamaica, and to gain the American left, if possible. This division, under the general command of Clinton, moved from Flatlands on the evening of the twenty-sixth,August, 1776 and, guided by a Tory, passed the narrow causeway, over a marsh near the scattered village of New Lots, * called Shoemaker's Bridge. At two o'clock in the morning they gained the high wooded hills within half a mile of the present village of East New York, unobserved by Colonel Miles and the American patroles, except some subaltern officers on horseback, whom they captured. Informed that the Jamaica road was unguarded, Clinton hastened to secure the pass, and before daylight that important post and the Bedford pass ** were in his possession, and yet General Sullivan was ignorant of the departure of the enemy from Flatlands. Expecting an attack upon his right, in the vicinity of Gowanus, all his vigilance seems to have been turned in that direction, and he did not send fresh scouts in the direction of Jamaica. The advantage thus gained by Clinton decided the fortunes of the day.

While the British right wing was gaining this vantage ground, General Grant, with the left, composed of two brigades, one regiment, and a battalion of New York Loyalists raised by Tryon, made a forward movement toward Brooklyn, along the coast road, *** by way of Martense's Lane—"the road from Flatbush to the Red Lion" (4) mentioned by Lord Stirling. The guard at the lower pass (3) gave the alarm, and at three o'clock in the morningAugust 27 Putnam detached Lord Stirling, **** with Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland regiments, commanded by Atlee, Haslet, and Smallwood, to oppose Grant. The militia guard at Martense's Lane were driven back by Grant to the hills of Greenwood Cemetery, a little north of Sylvan Water, where they were rallied by Parsons, and maintained a conflict until the arrival of Stirling (v) at daybreak, with fifteen hundred men.

* New Lots village is about a mile south of the rail-way station at East New York, upon the same plain. The morass at Shoemaker's Bridge (30 on map, page 806) is now only a wet swale, with a small sluggish stream, and presents none of the difficulties of passage of former days. It is said that at the time in question a single regiment might have kept the whole British force at bay at Shoemaker's Bridge.

** There were four important passes through the hills which should have been well guarded, namely, at Martense's Lane (3), on the southern border of Greenwood Cemetery; the Flatbush pass, at the junction of the present Brooklyn and Flatbush turnpike and the Coney Island Plank road; the Bedford pass, about half a mile northward of the junction of the Flatbush and Bedford roads; and the Jamaica pass, a short distance from East New York, on the road to Williamsburgh, just at the entrance to the Cemetery of the Evergreens. At East New York, "Howard's half-way house" of the Revolution is yet standing, though mueh altered. William Howard, a son of the Whig tavern-keeper, is yet (1852) living there, at the age of ninety. He told me that he remembers well seeing the British approaching from New Lots, and then taking his father a prisoner and compelling him to show them the Jamaica pass, and the best route over the hills east of it, to the open country toward Brooklyn. We sat in the room in which he was born eighty-nine years before.

*** It must be remembered that the present road along the verge of the high bank from Yellow Hook to Gowanus did not exist. The "coast road" was on the slopes further inland, and terminated at Martense's Lane.

**** Lord Stirling was in the English House of Commons on the seeond of February, 1775, when this same General Grant declared in debate that the Americans "could not fight," and that he would undertake to march from one end of the Continent to the other with five thousand men."—Duer's Life of Lord Stirling, 162; Par. Reg., i., 135.

* (v) William Alexander, earl of Stirling, was born in the eity of New York in 1726. His father, James Alexander, was a native of Scotland, and took refuge in America in 1716, after an active espousal of the ling took position upon the slopes a little northwest of "Battle Hill," in Greenwood, and Atlee ambuscaded in the woods on the left of Martense's Lane, near the Firemen's Monucause of the pretender, in the rebellion the previous year. His mother was the widow of David Provoost, better known in the city of New York, a little more than a century ago, as "Ready-money Provoost."* Young Alexander joined the army during a portion of the French and Indian war, and was aid-de-camp and secretary to General Shirley. He accompanied that officer to England in 1755, and while there he made the acquaintance of some of the leading statesmen of the time. By the advice of many of them, he instituted legal proceedings to obtain the title of Earl of Stirling, to which his father was heir presumptive when he left Scotland" Although he did not obtain a legal recognition of the title, his right to it was generally conceded, and from that time he was addressed as Earl of Stirling. He returned to America in 1761, and soon afterward married the daughter of Philip Livingston (the second lord of the manor), a sister of Governor Livingston, of New Jersey, and built a fine mansion (yet standing) at Baskenridge, in that state. He was a member of the Provincial Council of New Jersey for several years. In 1775, the Provincial Convention of New Jersey appointed him colonel of the first regiment of militia, and in March, 1776. the Continental Congress gave him the commission of brigadier. Lee left him in command at New York in April. He was conspicuous in the battle near Brooklyn in August, and in February ensuing Congress appointed him a major general. He performed varied and active service until the summer of 1781, when he was ordered to the command of the Northern army, his head-quarters at Albany.