When general Clinton had passed the left flank of the Americans, about eight o’clock in the morning of the 27th, de Heister and Grant vigorously ascended the hill; the troops which opposed them bravely maintained their ground, until they learned their perilous situation from the British columns which were gaining their rear. As soon as the American left discovered the progress of general Clinton, they attempted to return to the camp at Brooklyn, but their flight was stopped by the front of the British column. In the mean time, the Germans pushed forward from Flatbush, and the troops in the American centre, under the immediate command of general Sullivan, having also discovered that their flank was turned, and that the enemy was gaining their rear, in haste retreated towards Brooklyn. Clinton’s columns continuing to advance, intercepted them; they were attacked in front and rear, and alternately driven by the British on the Germans, and by the Germans on the British. Desperate as their situation was, some regiments broke through the enemy’s columns and regained the fortified camp; but most of the detachments upon the American left and centre were either killed or taken prisoners. The detachment on the American right, under lord Sterling, maintained a severe conflict with general Grant for six hours, until the van of general Clinton’s division, having crossed the whole island, gained their rear.
Lord Sterling perceived his danger, and found that his troops could be saved only by an immediate retreat over a creek near the cove. He gave orders to this purpose; and, to facilitate their execution, he in person attacked lord Cornwallis, who, by this time having gained the coast, had posted a small corps in a house, just above the place where the American troops must pass the creek. The attack was bravely made with four hundred men; but his lordship being reinforced from his own column, and general Grant attacking lord Sterling in the rear, this brave band was overpowered by numbers, and those who survived were compelled to surrender themselves prisoners of war; but this spirited assault gave opportunity for a large proportion of the detachment to escape. General Washington passed over to Brooklyn in the heat of the action; but, unable to rescue his men from their perilous situation, was constrained to be the inactive spectator of the slaughter of his best troops. The loss of the Americans on this occasion, for the number engaged, was great; general Washington stated it at a thousand men; but his returns probably included only the regular regiments. General Howe, in an official letter, made the prisoners amount to one thousand and ninety-seven. Among these were major-general Sullivan, and brigadier-generals Sterling and Woodhull. The amount of the killed was never with precision ascertained. The British loss, as stated by general Howe, was twenty-one officers, and three hundred and forty-six privates killed, wounded, and taken prisoners.
The British now encamped in front of the American lines, and on the succeeding night broke ground within six hundred yards of a redoubt on the left. In this critical state of the American army on Long island,—in front a numerous and victorious enemy with a formidable train of artillery,the fleet indicating an intention to force a passage into East river to make some attempt on New York, the troops lying without shelter from heavy rains, fatigued and dispirited,—it was determined to withdraw from the island; and this difficult movement was effected with great skill and judgment, and with complete success.
The defeat of the 27th made a most unfavorable impression upon the army. A great proportion of the troops lost their confidence in their officers, and in themselves. Before this unfortunate event, they met the enemy in the spirit of freemen fighting for their highest interests, and under the persuasion that their thorough use of arms rendered them equal to the disciplined battalions which they were to oppose. But on this occasion, by evolutions which they did not comprehend, they found themselves encompassed with difficulties from which their utmost exertions could not extricate them, and involved in dangers from which their bravery could not deliver them; and entertaining a high opinion of the adroitness of the enemy,in every movement they apprehended a fatal snare.[117] No sooner had the British secured the possession of Long island, than they made dispositions to attack New York. It was a serious question whether that place was defensible against so formidable an enemy; and general Washington called a council of general officers, to decide whether it should be evacuated without delay, or longer defended. The general officers, in compliance with the views of congress, were very averse from the abandonment of the city; and it was resolved, contrary to the individual opinion of Washington, to endeavor to defend the city.
The army was accordingly arranged into three divisions, one of which, consisting of five thousand men, was to remain in New York; another, amounting to nine thousand, was to be stationed at King’s Bridge; and the residue of the army was to occupy the intermediate space, so as to support either extreme. The unexpected movements of the British soon evinced the correctness of the opinion of the general-in-chief; and in a second council it was determined, by a large majority, that it had become not only prudent, but necessary, to withdraw the army from New York. Several English ships of war passed up North river on the one side of York island, and East river on the other side; Sir Henry Clinton embarked at Long island, at the head of four thousand men, proceeded through Newtown bay, crossed East river, and landed, under cover of the ships, at Kipp’s bay, about three miles above New York. Works of considerablestrength had been thrown up at this place, to oppose the landing of the enemy; but they were immediately abandoned by the troops stationed in them, who, terrified at the fire of the ships, fled precipitately toward their main body, and communicated their panic to a detachment marching to their support. General Washington, to his extreme mortification, met this whole party retreating in the utmost disorder, and exerted himself to rally them; but, on the appearance of a small corps of the British, they again broke, and fled in confusion. Nothing was now left him but to withdraw the few remaining troops from New York, and to secure the posts on the heights. The retreat from New York was effected with a very inconsiderable loss of men; but all the heavy artillery, and a large portion of the baggage, provisions, and military stores, were unavoidably abandoned.
The British, taking possession of New York, stationed a few troops in the capital; but the main body of their army was on York island, at no great distance from the American lines. The day after the retreat from New York, a considerable body of the British appearing in the plains between the two camps, the general ordered colonel Knowlton, with a corps of rangers, and major Leitch, with three companies of a Virginia regiment, to get in their rear, while he amused them by making apparent dispositions to attack their front. The plan succeeded; and a skirmish ensued, in which the Americans charged the enemy with great intrepidity, and gained considerable advantage; but the principal benefit of this action was its influence in reviving the depressed spirits of the whole army. The armies did not long retain their position on York island. The British frigates having passed up North river under a fire from fort Washington and the post opposite to it on the Jersey shore, general Howe embarked a great part of his army in flat-bottomed boats, and, passing through Hellgate into the sound, landed at Frog’s neck.
The object of the British general was, either to force Washington out of his present lines, or to inclose him in them. Aware of this design, general Washington moved a part of his troops from York island to join those at King’s Bridge, and detached some regiments to West Chester. A council of war was now called, and the system of evacuating and retreating was adopted, with the exception of fort Washington, for the defence of which nearly three thousand men were assigned. After a halt of six days the royal army advanced, not without considerable opposition, along the coast of Long Island sound, by New Rochelle, to White Plains, where the Americans took a strong position behind intrenchments. This post was maintained for several days, till the British having received considerable reinforcements, general Washington withdrew to the heights of North Castle, about five miles from White Plains, where, whether from the strength of his position, or from the British general having other objects in view, no attempt at attack was made.
Immediately on leaving White Plains, general Howe directed his attention to fort Washington and fort Lee, as their possession would secure the navigation of the Hudson, and facilitate the invasion of New Jersey. On the 15th of November, general Howe, being in readiness for the assault, summoned the garrison to surrender. Colonel Magaw, the commanding officer, in spirited language, replied, that he should defend his works to extremity. On the succeeding morning the British made the assault in four separate divisions; and having, after a brave and obstinate resistance,surmounted the outworks, again summoned the garrison to surrender. His ammunition being nearly expended, and his force incompetent to repel the numbers which were ready on every side to assail him, colonel Magaw surrendered himself and his garrison, consisting of two thousand men, prisoners of war. The enemy lost in the assault about eight hundred men, mostly Germans.
The conquest of fort Washington made the evacuation of fort Lee necessary. Orders were therefore issued to remove the ammunition and stores in it; but, before much progress had been made in this business, lord Cornwallis crossed the Hudson, with a number of battalions, with the intention to inclose the garrison between the Hackensack and North rivers. This movement made a precipitate retreat indispensable, which was happily effected with little loss of men; but the greater part of the artillery, stores, and baggage was left for the enemy. The loss at fort Washington was heavy. The regiments captured in it were some of the best troops in the army. The tents, camp-kettles, and stores, lost at this place and at fort Lee, could not, during the campaign, be replaced, and for the want of them the men suffered extremely. This loss was unnecessarily sustained, as those posts ought, unquestionably, to have been evacuated before general Howe was in a situation to invest them; and this event was the more to be deplored, as the American force was daily diminished by the expiration of the soldiers’ term of enlistment, and by the desertion of the militia.
These successes encouraged the British to pursue the remaining American force, with the prospect of annihilating it. General Washington, who had taken post at Newark, on the south side of the Passaic, finding himself unable to make any real opposition, withdrew from that place as the enemy crossed the Passaic, and retreated to Brunswick, on the Rariton; and lord Cornwallis on the same day entered Newark. The retreat was still continued from Brunswick to Princeton; from Princeton to Trenton; and from Trenton to the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware.The pursuit was urged with so much rapidity, that the rear of one army was often within shot of the van of the other.[118] The winter being now set in, the British army went into quarters, between the Delaware and the Hackensack. Trenton, the most important post and barrier, was occupied by a brigade of Hessians, under colonel Rawle. General Howe now issued a proclamation, in the name of his brother and himself, in which pardon was offered to all persons who, within the space of sixty days, should take the oath of allegiance, and submit to the authority of the British government. The effects of this proclamation were soon apparent. People from several quarters availed themselves of it, and threw down their arms. No city or town, indeed, in its corporate capacity, submitted to the British government; but many families of fortune and influence discovered an inclinationto return to their allegiance. Many of the yeomanry claimed the benefit of the commissioners’ proclamation; and the great body of them were too much taken up with the security of their families and their property, to make any exertion in the public cause. Another source of mortification to the Americans was the capture of general Lee,who had imprudently ventured to lodge at a house three miles distant from his corps.[119]