General Grant, on the enemy's left, with two brigades and a regiment, two companies of Tories and ten pieces of artillery, in the mean time advanced along the bay road against the flying Americans, and, at daybreak of the 27th, got through the pass in the hills and was marching on the Brooklyn lines. General Parsons, in command of the American outpost on the right, succeeded in rallying some of the fugitives and posting them advantageously on a hill until the arrival of Lord Stirling, who, with 1,500 choice Continental troops, had been sent by Putnam on learning the condition of affairs. For some hours Grant amused Stirling by slight skirmishes about Battle Hill (now in Greenwood Cemetery), till Clinton had reached his destined goal, when Grant, with quadruple forces, pushed forward to grapple in a death-struggle with his gallant foe. At the same time De Heister, who had slept upon his arms during the night at Flatbush, as soon as he heard Clinton's signal guns, sent Count Donop to storm the redoubt which protected Sullivan and defended the pass through the hills, while he himself pressed forward with the main body of the Hessians. Sullivan, hemmed in on all sides, ordered a retreat to the Brooklyn lines, but it was too late, as he was already ensnared in the prepared net, and before long all was a scene of confusion, consternation, and slaughter. Some of the Americans, after fighting desperately, broke through the enemy's line, but a large number were killed, wounded, or taken prisoners. Washington, from Brooklyn, witnessed this sad catastrophe, but was powerless to prevent it.
Stirling in like manner, met by the force under Cornwallis, which had been detached from Clinton's column, was nearly surrounded, having no chance for escape except across Gowanus Creek, in which the tide was fast rising. After a terrible conflict of twenty minutes, the mass of Stirling's command succeeded in passing the muddy stream, but the general and some of his bravest companions were compelled to surrender to superior numbers. Washington wrung his hands in agony at the sight of such disaster. "Good God", he cried, "what brave fellows I must this day lose!"
STIRLING.
After a photograph of a portrait in a family brooch, attested by H. S. Watts, Oct. 8, 1879 (in Harvard College library, given by Professor C. E. Norton). There is a picture, taken at a later day, engraved in Duer's Life of Stirling.—Ed.
By two o'clock in the afternoon, this battle, or rather this series of skirmishes between forces very unequal in numbers, quality, and skill, was terminated by the retreat of the remnant of Americans which had escaped capture. Howe stated his loss at 367 killed, wounded, and missing; and he estimated that of the Americans at 3,300, though probably it did not exceed one half of that number, of whom 1,076, including Generals Stirling, Sullivan, and Woodhull (captured at Jamaica on the next day), were made prisoners.
Fortunately the victor, instead of pressing his advantage and at once assaulting the Brooklyn intrenchments, which covered the demoralized troops, waited till the next day, when he broke ground as for a regular siege, and began cannonading the American works. "By such ill-timed caution", says Lord Mahon, "arising probably from an overestimate of the insurgents' force, the English general flung away the fairest opportunity of utterly destroying or capturing the flower of the American army;" yet such was the joy of the British government over this cheap success that General Howe was knighted for a victory over inexperienced troops one fifth his own numbers.
Washington, promptly profiting by the over-caution of his antagonist, strengthened his position, and conceived the masterly measures for his retreat from Long Island. Without the knowledge of Howe, availing himself of a dense fog and rain, and favored by a fair wind, he safely crossed the East River with all his troops, stores, and artillery, except a few heavy pieces which the mud prevented him from moving. The army reached New York on the morning of the 30th, Washington leaving in the last boat after having been forty-eight hours almost continuously in the saddle without once closing his eyes. "Whoever", says Botta, "will attend to all the details of this retreat will easily believe that no military operation was ever conducted by great captains with more ability and prudence, or under more unfavorable auspices."
Though the British general had gained a decided success, he was as far as ever from the object of his campaign—the capture of New York. The victors and the vanquished now confronted each other from opposite sides of a stream half a mile broad, each making ready for a decisive effort. Howe possessed a large, veteran, and disciplined European army, while Washington's troops, for the most part, were a demoralized assemblage of heterogeneous organizations, not much superior to an armed mob.