To effect this, it was necessary to attack Cornwallis, and while a few—a forlorn hope—should keep him at bay, a large part of the Americans might escape. No time was to be lost, for the tide was rising, and soon the creek would be impassable. Changing his front, and leaving his main body in conflict with Grant, Stirling, at the head of a part of Smallwood's battalion, commanded by Major (afterward General) Gist, fell upon Cornwallis, and blood flowed freely. For twenty minutes the conflict was terrible. Stirling endeavored to drive the earl up the Port road, get between him and Fort Box, and under cover of its guns escape across Brower's dam. He was successful, but while with his handful of brave young men he was keeping the invader in check, a large part of his companions in arms, consisting now chiefly of Haslet's Delawares and a part of Smallwood's Marylanders, reached the creek. Some passed it in safety, but many sunk into silence in the deep mud on its margin or beneath its turbid waters. Stirling was obliged to yield when despoiled of nearly all of his brave men. **** He became a prisoner, and was sent immediately on board the Eagle, Lord Howe's flag-ship. Thus ended the battle, when the sun was at meridian; when it disappeared behind the low hills of New Jersey, one third of the five thousand patriots who had contended for victory were lost to their country—dead, wounded, or prisoners. * Soon many of the latter were festering with
* The most sanguinary conflict occurred after the Americans had left the Flatbush pass, and attempted to retreat to the lines at Brooklyn. The place of severest contest, and where Sullivan and his men were made prisoners, was upon the slope between the Flatbush Avenue and the Long Island rail-way, between Bedford and Brooklyn, near "Baker's Tavern" (17), at a little east of the junction of these avenues. The preceding map, compiled from those of the English engineers for Marshall's Life of Washington, will assist the reader in obtaining a proper understanding of the movements of the two armies.
** This house, built of stone, with a brick gable from eaves to peak, is yet (1852) standing upon the eastern side of the road leading from Brooklyn to Gowanus. It was built by Nicholas Vechte in 1699, and was one of the first houses created between Brooklyn and New Utrecht.
*** This is a view of the old mill of the Revolution, as it appeared when I made the sketch in 1850, before it was destroyed. The view is from the west side of Gowanus Creek, looking southeast. In the extreme distance is seen the "Yellow Mill" between which and the one in the foreground so many of the patriots perished.
****Smallwood's regiment was composed chiefly of young men belonging to the most respectable and influential families in Maryland. Two hundred and fifty-nine of them perished in this conflict with Cornwallis's grenadiers near the "Cortelyon House."
* (v) Dispatches of Washington and General Howe; Letter of R. H. Harrison, quoted by Sparks, Washington's Writings, iv., 513; Letters of Haslet and Sullivan, 516, 517; Doer's Life of Lord Stirling, 163; Life and Correspondence of President Reed, i., 218—224; Gordon, ii., 96—101; Marshall, i., 87—91; Sted-man, i., 191-196; Onderdonk, ii.. 127-131. The loss of the Americans is not precisely known. Howe estimated it at 3300; it probably did not exceed 1650, of whom about 1100 were made prisoners. Howe stated his own loss at 367 killed, wounded, and made prisoners.
Capture, Treatment, and Death of General Woodhull.—Preparations to Besiege the Works at Brooklyn.
disease in the loathsome prisons in New York, or in the more loathsome prison-ships at the Wallabout. * General Woodhull was made a prisoner at Jamaica the next day, ** and at the close of summer no man was in arms against the crown in Kings, Queens, and Richmond counties.
The victors encamped in front of the patriot lines, and reposed until the morning of the twenty-eighth,August, 1778 when they broke ground within six hundred yards of Fort Putnam, cast up a redoubt (18), and cannonaded the American works. Washington was there, and joyfully perceived the design of Howe to commence regular approaches instead of rapid assaults. This fact was a ray of light in the midst of surrounding gloom. The