1 7 7 6 your government to throw a body of one thousand or more men across the sound, to harass the enemy in their

The
American
Defenses

Flag of the First Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment
(Reproduced, by the Lumiere process of color photography, from
the original in the State House at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania)

rear or upon their flanks,

. secur

ing the stocks of cattle, &c." O' n the

twenty-fifth, General De Heister, a

crippled veteran of many campaigns, landed at Gravesend Bay with two more Hessian brigades. Howe's more than twenty

thousand men occupied a line extending from the Narrows to Flatlands.

The Americans upon the island were in a dangerous position; if the British fleet should force its way into the East River their retreat would be cut off. Yet, if New York was to remain in American hands, it was necessary that Brooklyn Heights should be held, for they dominated the city. General Nathanael Greene with about seven thousand men had spent the summer in fortifying the position. Back of Brooklyn village he had built a line of intrenchments and redoubts from Gowanus Cove on the south to Wallabout Bay on the north, a distance of a little less than a mile. Each flank of these inner works was well protected by creeks and morasses. Two or three miles beyond were the Brooklyn Heights, a difficult, heavily wooded ridge, practically passable by troops with artillery only at the Narrows road near the bay, at Flatbush Pass, about three miles to the eastward, and at Jamaica

Pass, two or three miles still beyond. Unfortunately, Greene, who was a capable officer and familiar with the situ

ation,
prostrated by
the prevailing
fever; on the
twentieth of
August he was
succeeded by
Sullivan. On
the twenty-
fourth, Wash-

ington placed

I776

I

Private of Artillery, Continental Line
(From original drawing by Harry A. Ogden)
Putnam in command; on the
twenty-fifth, he sent him written
instructions; on the twenty-sixth,
he crossed over to the island and
made a personal inspection of the
intrenchments and the outposts.
Putnam was devoted, honest, and
courageous, but he knew almost
nothing of the arrangements for
defense and little of scientific war-
fare. He can hardly be said to have
exercised general command on the
Coat of Arms of Israel Putnam day of the battle that was at hand.

1776

With forces outnumbering the Americans three to one Howe's Plans and thoroughly informed by Tories of the position of

AmesGrunk

Autograph of James Grant

the enemy, Howe planned
to make the attack in three
columns. General Grant,
whom we met at Fort Du-
quesne and again in the Cherokee country, was to advance
with two brigades, a regiment of Highlanders, and two
companies of New York Tories along the Narrows road
against the American right. General De Heister with
yagers and three German brigades was to move along the
Flatbush road and attack the Americans in that neighbor-

hood. Howe himself,
with Clinton, Cornwallis,
Percy, and the rest of the

army, was to make a long

Howard's Tave

detour, seize the Jamaica road, and attack the American 1 776 outer line in the rear. Against an adequate army ably led, such tactics would have been extremely hazardous.

On the twenty-sixth, De Heister's Hessians occupied Somebody Flatbush and threatened the pass in front, which Sullivan Blundered held with an intrenched force. At nine o'clock in the evening, Clinton's flanking column, guided by three Flatbush Tories, moved from Flatlands toward the Jamaica Pass near which, about three in the morning of the twenty-seventh, they captured five mounted officers who were supposed to be doing patrol duty. Finding no other obstruction at the pass, the British marched into the American rear by the Jamaica road, "a route we never dreamed of," as one of the American officers innocently wrote. By

this maneuver, the

American

advanced forces were completely outflanked and surprised and the battle was really decided before the fighting had begun.

Meanwhile, General Grant, on the British left, had moved forward as planned and

secured the

Stirling's

Skirmish

1 7 7 6 pass in front of him by daybreak. Putnam sent Lord Stirling with fifteen hundred troops to oppose him, and slight skirmishes followed for several hours in what is now Greenwood Cemetery. Considering that they were outnumbered four to one, Stirling's men seemed to be doing well; Grant probably did not desire to drive them from their position until the flanking column had gained their rear.

Sullivan and

De Heister

Stirling and

Grant

In the British center, De Heister and his Hessians had lain on their arms directly in front of Sullivan, at the Flatbush pass. When Clinton descended from the wooded hills and attacked the Americans on the plain at Bedford, his guns were heard and understood by De Heister. The Hessians pushed promptly forward and Sullivan was caught in the net. Ten thousand British and four thousand Hessians were too many for fewer than three thousand Americans and Sullivan ordered a retreat. On the way, they were met by Clinton's light infantry and dragoons who drove them back upon the Hessian bayonets. Fighting hand to hand with the foe, Sullivan's men were driven backward and forward between De Heister's full ranks on the one side and Clinton's on the other. Many cut their way through the hedge of bayonets and sabres, after which there was a lively chase over the hills and through the woods just outside the Brooklyn lines. Had the pursuing grenadiers then stormed Fort Putnam, an easy victory would doubtless have been won. Many were killed, wounded, or captured and Sullivan was taken prisoner. Washington had come over from New York and saw the calamity that he could not avert.

On the American right, Stirling soon found his force shut in between Grant and Cornwallis while Gowanus Creek and a marsh and a fast-rising tide were behind him. To gain time, he took a small force of Marylanders and charged against the enemy while the greater number of his men worked their way across the muddy stream, or sank in its turbid waters or in the deep mud of its banks. For twenty minutes there was a sharp