Part 14 (1/2)
_From the map by Gen. Jeremiah Johnson_]
Howe now took possession of the deserted works. All the towns of Kings County were in possession of the army, who had strong garrisons in each.
Meantime Howe made his headquarters at Newtown. During the continuance of the war thereafter, and for a period of over seven years, Kings County remained under the absolute control and domination of the British.
Howe now made another effort to restore the colonies to the mother country. The disaster and repulse which the Americans received in Brooklyn led him to suppose it a favorable opportunity to accomplish his mission of peace. He communicated with the Continental Congress, and opened negotiations with a promise of pardon to all who would lay down their arms. He also added a promise that the obnoxious laws which had led to the struggle should be repealed.
The proposition came too late. No concession but acknowledgment of independence would satisfy the people. A conference was held at Staten Island, whereat Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Francis Rutledge, the commissioners appointed by Congress to attend the negotiations, refused to listen to any terms of peace, except such as should recognize the full and complete independence of the colonies. Howe, having failed in his effort, issued another proclamation to the people, and resolved to proceed and take the city of New York.
The battle of Brooklyn cost the Americans the loss of that brave general, Nathaniel Woodhull, who for nearly a year had acted as the President of the Provincial Congress of New York. He was in command of a part of the forces, and was captured on the 28th of August by a party of Tories under command of Captain De Lancey, near the village of Jamaica.
Notwithstanding the fact that he was a prisoner, and ent.i.tled to respectful treatment, he suffered great indignities at the hands of his captors, who inflicted numerous sabre wounds, which resulted in his death. He was at first taken to the Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, where for the night he was confined with other patriots. In the morning he was placed on a hay-boat, and taken down Jamaica Bay to New York Bay, and landed at New Utrecht. Reaching the latter place he began to fail very rapidly, and the officers, seeing his days were numbered, allowed him to be carried to the house of Nicasius De Sille, where he died as a true soldier, breathing blessings on his countrymen, and willingly giving his life in the cause he loved so well.
Woodhull was the hero of Long Island. He rendered important service in the formation of the state government, and was always a leader who secured and retained the respect and confidence of his const.i.tuents.
The occupation of Long Island by the British did not accomplish the results antic.i.p.ated. The victory gained was barren. The authorities at home did not see in it anything to commend. In the light of present knowledge it was pa.s.sing strange that Generals Howe and Clinton and Admiral Howe should have committed so fatal a blunder as to attempt the subjugation of the city of New York by a pa.s.sage of the army across Long Island. The situation of Manhattan Island, extending into the bay, with a wide expanse of water on each side, presented an inviting field for an attack upon the city. Admiral Howe, with his large and well-equipped fleet, could have readily besieged New York, and forced Was.h.i.+ngton with his little band of patriots to evacuate the place. As it was he weakened his force, and enabled Was.h.i.+ngton to concentrate his army. Long Island being isolated from the main land was of but little consequence to either side. Had Howe with his fleet besieged the city, and landed the military forces, their success would have been complete, as the Americans were not prepared to resist the invasion. Such a policy would have resulted disastrously to the patriotic cause. As we have already stated, the battle of Brooklyn was never looked upon by British authorities as at all creditable. Whatever glory gathers round the engagement centres in the exhibition of military skill displayed by Was.h.i.+ngton in the management of the masterly retreat of the American army from Long Island, and its safe arrival in the city of New York.
Yet Was.h.i.+ngton was greatly distressed and disheartened by the defeat at Brooklyn. In referring to the battle in one of his letters written shortly after the disaster, he expressed his feelings in unmistakable terms. He says: ”The check our detachment sustained on the 27th has disappointed too great a proportion of our troops and filled their minds with apprehension and despair. The militia, instead of calling forth their utmost efforts to a brave and manly opposition, in order to repair our losses, are dismayed, intractable, and impatient to return. Great numbers of them have gone off! in some instances by whole regiments, by half ones, and by companies, at a time.” Was.h.i.+ngton was well-nigh discouraged by the state of affairs. He had enlisted with the purest motives, and ever manifested a spirit of self-sacrifice. He regretted that the same spirit did not abide with those who had with him enlisted in the service.
Howe, having full possession of the American fortifications on Long Island, determined to use the fleet under command of his brother, Admiral Howe. The vessels were brought within gunshot of the city. The Rose, carrying forty guns, pa.s.sed through b.u.t.termilk Channel and anch.o.r.ed in Turtle Bay, in the neighborhood of Forty-second Street and East River, to aid the other vessels then in the Sound by a concert of action against the city.
Was.h.i.+ngton, noticing the movements of the s.h.i.+ps of war, and foreseeing that the condition of his army would not permit a defense, resolved to leave the city. Before doing so he summoned a council of his officers, who coincided with him in his views of the situation. This was on the 12th of September. An order was issued at once for the removal of the military stores across the Harlem River, and a force was stationed at Kingsbridge.
General Putnam was left in command of the city with about 4000 men. The main body under Was.h.i.+ngton was stationed at Harlem Heights. Was.h.i.+ngton was now surrounded with difficulties which required great ability to overcome. The enemy had the men and means to move on his works, and against their attack he could offer but feeble resistance. It was a dark and doleful hour in our history. In order to make no mistake it became necessary to adopt a decisive policy, and to arrange plans whereby the advance movements of the enemy might be circ.u.mvented. He considered it of the utmost importance to ascertain the intentions of Howe and Clinton. A council of war was called, and it was resolved to send a man who could be trusted into the enemy's ranks to gain the desired information.
In this emergency Nathan Hale, a young and brilliant officer, volunteered his services. Procuring the necessary disguise, Hale started on the mission fraught with so much danger. Pa.s.sing over to Long Island, he entered unnoticed and un.o.bserved the enemy's line, succeeded in making drawings of their works, and gained full and complete information as to all their intended movements.
As he was returning, he was recognized as belonging to the rebel army, and was arrested, and conveyed to the Beekman house, on the corner of Fifty-first Street and First Avenue, where General Howe had his headquarters. He was at once tried, convicted as a spy, and sentenced to be hung on the following day at daybreak. It was a mercy to him that his execution was fixed so speedily, as in the mean time he was placed in the keeping of that heartless scoundrel, Cunningham, whose after deeds as provost marshal of New York have rendered his name forever infamous.
Hale was kept in confinement during the night by the marshal, who refused to give him a light and writing materials to enable him to send a last message of love to his aged parents and friends. A kindly disposed lieutenant afterwards furnished him with pen and paper.
Cunningham, however, in the morning manifested the natural atrocity of his disposition by rudely tearing into pieces before his eyes the letters which he had written, and at the same time declaring ”that the rebels should never know that they had a man in their army who could die with so much firmness.”
On the morning of September 22, 1776, Cunningham ordered the execution to proceed, and at the same time required Hale to make a dying confession. In the n.o.bility of his liberty-loving nature, Hale said: ”I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” These brave words were his last. He was suspended on an apple-tree, and his remains were committed to the grave without any ceremony. He did not perish; his name will live as that of one of the heroes of the Revolution. In the American army he was universally beloved, and his untimely end filled the hearts of his friends with deep-seated hatred to their foes, and a renewed determination to be avenged.
In this connection the following may not be uninteresting. It is an extract from a letter from New York, dated September 1, 1776:[48]
”Last Monday we went over to Long Island, and about midnight we were alarmed by the return of some of our scouting parties, who advised us that the _English_ were in motion, and coming up the island with several field pieces; it was generally thought not to be the main body, but only a detachment, with a view to possess themselves of some advantageous heights, upon which near three thousand men were ordered out, consisting chiefly of the Pennsylvania and Maryland troops, to attack them on their march. The Delaware and Maryland battalions made one party. Colonel Atlee with his battalion, a little before us, had taken post in an orchard, and behind a barn, and on the approach of the enemy he gave them a very severe fire, which he bravely kept up for a considerable time, until they were near surrounding him, when he retreated to the woods. The enemy then advanced towards us, upon which _Lord Stirling_, who commanded, immediately drew us up in line, and offered them battle in the true _English_ taste. The British army then advanced within three hundred yards of us, and began a heavy fire from their cannon and mortars, for both the b.a.l.l.s and sh.e.l.ls flew very fast, now and then taking off a head. Our men stood it amazing well; not even one of them showed a disposition to shrink.
”Our orders were not to fire until the enemy came within fifty yards of us; but when they perceived we stood their fire so coolly and resolutely, they declined coming any nearer, though treble our number.
In this situation we stood from sunrise to twelve o'clock, the enemy firing upon us the chief part of the time, when the main body of their army, by a route we never dreamed of, had utterly surrounded us, and drove within the lines or scattered in the woods all our men except the _Delaware_ and Maryland battalions, who were standing at bay with double their number. Thus situated, we were ordered to attempt a retreat by fighting our way through the enemy, who had posted themselves and nearly filled every field and road between us and our lines. We had not retreated a quarter of a mile before we were fired upon by an advanced party of the enemy, and those upon our rear were playing upon us with their artillery. Our men fought with more than _Roman_ courage, and I am convinced would have stood until they were shot down to a man. We forced the advanced party which first attacked us to give way, through which opening we got a pa.s.sage down to the side of a marsh, seldom before waded over, which we pa.s.sed, and then swam a narrow river, all the time exposed to the fire of the enemy. The companies commanded by Captains Ramsey and Scott were in the front, and sustained the first fire of the enemy, when hardly a man fell.
”The whole right wing of our battalion, thinking it impossible to pa.s.s through the marsh, attempted to force their way through the woods, where they were almost to a man killed or taken. The Maryland battalion has lost two hundred and fifty-nine men, amongst whom are twelve officers: Captains Veazey and Bowie, the first certainly killed; Lieutenants Butler, Sterritt, Dent, Coursey, Muse, Prawl; Ensigns Coates and Fernandez; who of them killed or who prisoners is yet uncertain. Many of the officers lost their swords and guns. We have since abandoned Long Island, bringing off all our military stores.
”Generals Sullivan and Stirling are both prisoners. Colonels Atlee, Miles, and Piper are also taken. There are about one thousand men missing in all. We took a few prisoners. By a lieutenant we took, we understand they had about twenty-three thousand men on the Island that morning. Most of our Generals were upon a high hill, in our lines, viewing us with gla.s.ses. When we began our retreat, they could see the enemy we had to pa.s.s through, though we could not. Many of them thought we would surrender in a body without firing. When we begun the attack, General _Was.h.i.+ngton_ wrung his hands and cried out, _Good G.o.d! What brave fellows I must this day lose_. Major Guest commanded the _Maryland_ battalion, the Colonel and Lieutenant Colonel being both at York. Captains Adams and Lucas were sick. The Major, Captain Ramsey and Lieutenant Plunkett were foremost and within forty yards of the enemy's muzzles, when they were fired upon by the enemy, who were chiefly under cover of an orchard, save a force that showed themselves, and pretended to give up, clubbing their firelocks until we came within that distance, when they immediately presented, and blazed in our faces; they entirely overshot us, and killed some men away behind in our rear. I had the satisfaction of dropping one of them the first fire I made. I was so near I could not miss. I discharged my rifle seven times that day, as deliberately as I ever did at a mark, and with as little perturbation.”
Was.h.i.+ngton, in a letter dated September 4, 1776, addressed to General Schuyler, fixes the number in killed, wounded, and prisoners on the American side in the Long Island battle at from seven hundred to one thousand men.[49]
In writing to the Ma.s.sachusetts a.s.sembly, under date of September 19, 1776, Was.h.i.+ngton states that the number in killed and wounded of the enemy could not be ascertained, ”but that it was pretty considerable and exceeded ours a good deal.” He also says that the Americans lost eight hundred men, three fourths of whom were taken prisoners, thereby leaving only two hundred killed.[50]
English writers upon this subject place the loss on the American side at between three and four thousand. These figures greatly overstep the mark, and were doubtless gathered from the reports of those commanding generals who desired to make it appear to the home authorities that a substantial victory had been secured.
The loss in the battle of Brooklyn is fixed by the best authorities at not over a thousand men. This, as we have seen, is the number fixed by Was.h.i.+ngton himself, both in his letters and official reports. Johnson, in his admirable and exhaustive narrative of the campaign of 1776, concurs in this view. These figures appear to be a correct estimate of the loss sustained. Certainly if as many had been killed as reported by British officials, some tradition or evidence would exist as to the vast number requiring burial after the battle, and subsequent to the evacuation. The neutral inhabitants remaining on the island would have found abundant occupation in consigning so many to mother earth. This alone would have rendered the occasion memorable.
The loss on the Tory side appears from the returns made by General Howe to have been:--Commissioned officers: three generals, three colonels, four lieutenant-colonels, three majors, eighteen captains, forty-three lieutenants, and eleven ensigns; staff officers: one adjutant, three surgeons, two volunteers; privates: one thousand and six. This includes nine wounded officers and fifty-six wounded privates.[51]