Night of 29 to 30 August 1776
Long Island: the crossing to Manhattan
Howe halts his army before the Brooklyn lines and begins a siege, digging trenches closer each day. With the East River behind him and the British fleet able to close it, Washington holds a council on 29 August, and his generals agree to retreat to Manhattan, with Thomas Mifflin’s Pennsylvanians keeping the outer lines as a rearguard.
The American retreat from Long Island, painting published by the Werner Company, 1899Wikimedia Commons, The Werner Company, Public domain (U.S. Army - Artillery Retreat from Long Island 1776.jpg)
From 11 p.m. John Glover’s Marblehead regiment, sailors and fishermen, ferries the army across the river in every boat Washington can gather, with wagon wheels muffled and the men ordered to keep silent. Mifflin’s rearguard is called in too early by mistake and sent back to the lines. At daybreak the evacuation is not finished, but a fog covers the river, and by 7 a.m. the last boat, with Washington aboard, lands in Manhattan. All 9,000 men are across without loss of life.
Sources
- Barnet Schecter, The Battle for New York (2002).
- John J. Gallagher, The Battle of Brooklyn 1776 (1995).
- David McCullough, 1776 (2005).
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