Washington the Soldier

by Henry B. Carrington

Without full details, the following incidents occurred before Washington arrived and took command in person. The British left wing, under General Grant, crowded Stirling and his small command of seventeen hundred men back nearly to the Cortelyou House; but they made a gallant fight near the present Greenwood Cemetery. The battalions of Smallwood, Haslet, and Atlee covered themselves with honors. Stirling heard the firing at Flatbush, and hastened his retreat.

Cornwallis, upon his first landing, on the twenty-second, moved toward Flatbush, but finding it held by the American advance works, dropped down to Flatlands. De Heister, however, moved directly upon Flatbush, and commenced cannonading the redoubt and intrenchments, where Sullivan, being incidentally present, was in command. This advance of De Heister was in effect a feint attack, to be made real and persistent at the proper time.

On the British right, General Howe, with Clinton, Percy, and Cornwallis, gained the Jamaica road undiscovered, rested their forces until half-past eight in the morning, and were soon directly in front of the American works, in the rear of Sullivan and cutting off his retreat. Cornwallis gained position near the Cortelyou House, in the line of Stirling’s retreat. De Heister, advised by Clinton’s guns that the British right had accomplished its flank movement, advanced promptly upon both Sullivan and Stirling, and captured both, with a considerable portion of their commands.

The Battle of Long Island had been fought. Washington had declared that he would make the acquisition of Brooklyn Heights by the British, if realized, “as costly as possible.” It had been his expectation that by the advance posts ordered, and careful pickets, he could prolong resistance, if not winning full success. He had taken pains to convince the troops that the resistance at Bunker Hill and Fort Moultrie was a fair indication of their ability, and that the British troops understood it well. When John Jay proposed to burn New York and leave it in ruins, Washington insisted that it would tend to demoralize his army, and offer to the people and to the world a painful contrast with the successful restoration of Boston to her own people.

The Battle of Long Island had to be fought. As soon as it began, Washington crossed the river with three regiments. If Howe had made immediate advance, Washington would have resisted, with quite as large a force as Howe could have handled, in an assault.

Washington immediately, and in person, examined every phase of the situation. His first act was to organize a strong detachment to support Stirling who was opposing the advance by the harbor road; but the swift advance of the British Grenadiers across the very face of the intrenchments, defeated his purpose. Every man was summoned to roll-call and kept on the alert. At early dawn the next morning he went through all the intrenchments, encouraging the men. Before noon, General Mifflin arrived with the well-drilled regiments of Glover, Shaw, and Magee. These organizations, which had been sneered at as “proud of line arms and fine feathers,” as they marched up the ascent with solid ranks and steady step, supplied with knapsacks, and trim as if on special parade, were received by the garrison with cheers and congratulations. The garrison was now nine thousand strong. But a “north-easter” set in. The rain fell in torrents, tilling the trenches, and compelling even the British regulars to keep to the shelter of their tents. Washington was everywhere, and took no sleep. The British opened trenches six hundred yards from the face of Fort Putnam (now Washington Park), not daring to storm the position; but could work only during intervals in the tempest.

Washington held his enemy at bay. But upon the same reasoning which enforced his first occupation of Brooklyn Heights, boldly facing the British army at its first landing, he resolved to evacuate the position without decisive battle. His fixed policy,—to avoid positively determining issues which were beyond his immediate mastery, so as to wear out his adversary by avoiding his strokes, and thereby gain vantage-ground for turning upon him when worn out, over-confident, and off his guard,—had its illustration now. His army was not versed in tactical movements upon a large scale, and was largely dependent for its success upon the supervising wisdom with which its undoubted courage could be made available in the interests of the new Nation.

The retreat from Brooklyn was a signal achievement, characteristic of Washington’s policy and of the men who withdrew under his guidance. They were kept closely to duty, as if any hour might command their utmost energies in self-defence; but their Commander-in-Chief had his own plan, as before Boston, which he did not reveal to his officers until it was ripe for execution. How well he kept his own counsel will be seen by his action. The military ruse by which he achieved the result had its climax five years later, when he so adroitly persuaded Sir Henry Clinton of immediate danger to New York, that the capture of Cornwallis closed the war, and the surrender of New York followed. And as the month of August, 1776, was closing, Generals Clinton and Cornwallis were reckoning, by hours, upon the capture of Washington’s army and the restoration of British supremacy over the American continent.

Early on the morning of the twenty-ninth day of August, the following private note was placed in the hands of General Heath, then commanding at Kingsbridge, by General Mifflin, the confidential messenger of the American Commander-in-Chief:

Long Island, Aug. 29, 1776.