A BATTLE on LONG ISLAND
And now, early in the next spring, George Washington came again to
New York, having at last forced the British troops from Boston. The
city, which was under the control of the patriots, was in a state of
excitement, as it seemed probable that this was to be the next point
of attack. Every person who favored the cause of the King, or who was
suspected of favoring it, was looked upon with distrust. One-third of
the citizens had fled. The soldiers of the Continental army were
arriving daily. Women and children were rarely seen upon the streets.
Many of the royalists' houses, which had been closed when their owners
fled, were broken open to give sleeping quarters to the soldiers.
At the outbreak of the war the people's grievance had been simply
taxation without representation, but by this time the desire for
complete independence had taken fast hold of them. This feeling swept
through the colonies, and when the Continental Congress met in June of
this year, it voted that the united colonies should be free and
independent States and have no further political connection with Great
Britain. A declaration of independence was adopted on July 4th, and the
British colonies became the United States of America.
A horseman brought the news to New York, and there was great rejoicing.
The soldiers of the new Union then in the city were ordered to the
Common, and there, early in the evening, standing in a hollow
square--close by where the City Hall is now--and surrounded by a great
concourse of people, Washington read the address that proclaimed the
birth of a free and independent nation.
Following the reading the great throng applauded and then, filled with
enthusiasm, rushed away. At the City Hall in Wall Street they tore down
the painting of King George III. and trampled it under foot. On again
they went to the Bowling Green, and there they dragged down the statue
of the same royal person which had been erected only a few years before.
The scattered fragments of the leaden statue were afterward gathered up
and moulded into bullets.
This same month General William Howe, commander of the British army, had
landed on Staten Island, with his brother, Admiral Howe of the British
navy, and with the soldiers and sailors of their commands, made up a
fine, well-drilled army of 35,000 men, who had come to fight a force of
20,000 recruits; men not at all well-versed in war, and nearly half of
whom were ill and not able to be on duty.
But Washington calmly watched the British on Staten Island, and the
British ships, more than 400 of them, in the bay, and was not at all
dismayed. Once General Howe wrote to Washington suggesting measures that
would lead to peace, but nothing came of it.
Late in the month of August the fighting commenced. General Howe led his
forces to Long Island--led 21,000 men, for he thought that the best way
to capture New York was to first vanquish the army on Long Island by an
overwhelming force. Then the subduing of the city across the river would
be easy.
Washington hurried what men he could across to Long Island to assist
those already there. But even then the Americans were outnumbered as two
to one. The patriots fought long and well, but they were defeated. Two
hundred or more were killed, and three times as many, including three
generals, were made prisoners. But more than 300 of the British were
also killed.
The day after the battle, the American army was in Brooklyn, penned in
on the land side by the British troops and on the other by the wide,
swift-running river. It was raining in torrents. Washington was there.
He planned a retreat that was to save his army. All the boats to be
found along the shores of the Island of Manhattan were taken to Brooklyn
in the dead of night. Silently the soldiers were put aboard, so silently
that, although the British were almost within speaking distance, no
sound of the departing army reached them. The point where they embarked
was close by where the East River Bridge now touches the Brooklyn shore.
It was daylight before the last of the troops got aboard, but a heavy
fog shielded them as well as had the darkness.
When the sun swept the fog away, General Howe gazed in wonder at the
spot where the American forces had been the night before. But they
were gone, with the swiftness and silence of magic! The magician was
Washington, who had not slept from the hour of defeat until his men were
safe again in New York. But they were not to remain there long, as more
exciting work was before them.