The American general stood ready with his force to meet the movement of Howe as soon as it should develop sufficiently to be intelligible. The movement, so he reasoned, would be to land a force to attempt Brooklyn Heights, which commanded the city of New York.
General Greene and his army held Brooklyn, a strong line of works stretched across the peninsula, upon which the town stood, running from Wallabout Bay on the north to Gowanus Cove on the south. A battery was mounted on Red Hook to protect the rear from the shipping of the British; a fort occupied the lower point of Governor’s Island.
A range of hills stretched away before Greene’s intrenchments; it was densely wooded and cut by three passes. One of these led to Bedford in the east, the second opened to the southeast toward Flatbush, while a road ran through the third that led directly south by Gowanus Cove and Gravesend Bay. It was undoubtedly General Greene’s purpose to man the hills and defend these passes; but as fate would have it, he was taken down with a violent fever, and General Sullivan was placed in temporary command.
From the American camp of Livingston on the Jersey side, much British preparation was discerned. Word was sent to New York that thirty thousand troops had been crowded into the transports riding at anchor off Staten Island; these were to attack Long Island, and the remaining regiments were to be launched against other points at the same time.
The day after this news was received, the dull roar of cannon was heard from the south of Brooklyn; Washington instantly sent a reinforcement of six battalions across the river; more would have gone, but it was not yet known where the attack would really center.
With these battalions went George Prentiss, his friends Brewster and Cooper and his brother Ezra. Next day the latter, who had been riding for Sullivan to the south of the town, made known to his friends what had occurred.
“Colonel Hand was stationed with his Pennsylvania riflemen to guard the landing-places; a force of artillery and light horse crossed and drove him back. Sir Henry Clinton commanded this landing in person; but under cover of a smart rifle fire, Hand took possession of the hills commanding the Flatbush pass. Some light infantry, and Donop’s Hessians, came on to seize this; but seeing that the riflemen were capable of making a stubborn and bloody resistance, they halted and rested for the night at Flatbush.
“The remainder of Clinton’s force is laid out from the Narrows, where they landed, to Flatbush, which is almost a straight line to the east.”
On August 24th, Washington crossed the river and carefully inspected the scene of the coming struggle; Greene’s plans were at hand, but the gallant Rhode Islander was too desperately ill to explain them. As yet, nothing but skirmishing was indulged in, and it was fortunate for the Americans that this was so. If the British had plunged forward, the rout of the patriot army would have been complete; for, because of the absence of Greene from the lines, things were in a bad way.
“The conditions are even worse here than they were before Boston at the beginning of the siege,” Ezra Prentiss said to his friends, as they stood awaiting orders in front of Sullivan’s headquarters. “Confusion and disorder are everywhere.”