Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

how your Courage and Spirit have been dispised and traduced by your cruel invaders; though they have found by dear experience, at Boston, Charlestown, and other places, what a few brave men, contending in their own land, and in the best of causes can do, against base hirelings and mercenaries. Be cool, but determined, do not fire at a distance, but wait for orders from your officers.

"It is the General's express orders, that if any man attempts to skulk, lay down or retreat without orders, he be instantly shot down as an example, he hopes no such Scoundrel be found in this Army, but on the contrary, every one for himself, resolving to conquer or die, and trusting to the smiles of Heaven upon so just a cause, will behave with Bravery and Resolution." 30

On that same day, he went across the river to inspect the terrain, but the British contented themselves with occupying Flatbush and reconnoitring.

By a singular irony, the devastating battle did not break till August 27th, the very day appointed by the New York Convention, as

"A day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer to Almighty God, for the imploring of His Divine assistance in the organization and establishment of a form of Government for the security and perpetuation of the Civil and Religious Rights and Liberties of Mankind, and to supplicate his further protection in the war which now rages throughout America." 31

The Tory parson, Shewkirk, said that in New York, shaken by the thunder of distant battle, and deserted by the troublesome soldiers, this day of fast "was not and could not be observed. . . . As only a few of our people came, we kept only a little meeting in the forenoon. . . . The result of the battle was an agreeable disappointment for all honest men; for what could such a fast signify when men want to pursue measures against the Word and Will of God.” 32

He was a Tory, of course, and, as usual in war, each side solemnly advertised itself the exclusive agent of the deity.

N

XXXI

THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND

OTHING could be simpler than the strategic story of the battle of Long Island:

The Americans chose to defend a wall of hills with three gates in it. They forgot to shut the third gate.

After having appointed Sullivan to command the troops on Long Island, Washington set Putnam over him and there was confusion as to their exact provinces. Sullivan was angry at the time, but after the battle he was eager enough to deny that he was in command.

Putnam moved the troops out of Lee's fortifications forward to a long wooded ridge extending from Gowanus Bay far to the northeast, and set them to work digging in and building obstacles. But he made no investigation of his outposts.

The outposts on sighting the approach of the British landing parties fell back, burning wheatfields and barns. It was on August 22nd that Sir William Howe declared his intentions and landed without opposition at Gravesend. He put ashore about fifteen thousand men, a regiment of cavalry and forty guns.

Washington sent over six regiments to reinforce Putnam, but withheld further help till he could be sure of Howe's plan.

"If they should attack General Sullivan this day, and should show no disposition to attack me likewise, at the making of the next flood, I shall send such further reinforcements to Long Island as I may judge expedient, not choosing to weaken this post too much, before I am certain that the enemy are not making a feint upon Long

Island to draw our force to that quarter, when their real design may perhaps be upon this."

" 1

Three days later Howe brought over most of his Hessians, leaving only a few thousand on Staten Island to protect the place. With about twenty thousand men he now confronted less than half the number, who were, however, posted on high ground.

It would have seemed easy to send ships up the East River behind the American lines and compel the surrender of the whole force, and thus, perhaps have put an immediate end to the war with little bloodshed.

The British believed in the plan, but were hesitant about acting on it. They apparently supposed that the East River was well obstructed, and that the land batteries in New York, Brooklyn and on Governor's Island were dangerous.

An admiral of that time had to realize that he was three thousand miles away from home, and that the stormy Atlantic was a dangerous crossing for a shattered vessel.

Furthermore, he had only his sails to rely on, and the winds would not obey his needs. At this season they ordinarily blew from the southwest and would have given Lord Howe just the steam he wanted to run the batteries and provide the lower jaw of the nutcracker that was to crush Washington. To his disgust, the wind decided to pour down the East River for days with force enough to make his sailing up it almost impossible. The best he could do was to get five ships into New York harbor, where they threatened the town and the right flank of the Brooklyn position, and made Washington keep a large force in New York to repel a menaced bombardment and landing.

Having elected to fight the American army where he found it, Howe extended his line along the base of the American hill-positions and made a great show of preparing just such a frontal attack as the Americans hoped for. The

rebels dreamed of another Bunker Hill with a difference, and never suspected that Howe was merely "amusing” them, as the strategists say.

Howe had studied his map and spent four days in reconnoitering, and he knew the lay of the land. There were three highways leading from the Gravesend plains across the hills to the hamlet of Brooklyn and the old Fulton ferry. One, called Gowanus road, followed the coast line at a short distance through a pass at the western end of the rampart ridge, and through the marshes to the river shore. This was defended by Lord Stirling's men.

The middle road, three miles to the East, left the town of Flatbush and climbed the center of the hills and down again on the other side. This road was straddled by General Sullivan's troops, whose left wing under Colonel Miles extended eastward indefinitely but not far enough to reach the leftmost road.

This third road struck northeast from Flatland, crossing the so-called New Lots to Jamaica Pass, where it met at right angles the highway that ran from Jamaica along the ridge and down to Bedford, behind the ridge.

There was still another highway further east, but too far off to count.

The American right flank rested on the water. The American left flank was in the air.

The Jamaica Pass was plainly the gateway to the left flank.

Howe assumed that it would naturally be guarded by a strong detachment, at least, but felt that it was well worth forcing. He decided to go through it in person, with Lieutenant-General Clinton in command of the advance, followed by Lord Percy, Lord Cornwallis bringing up the

reserve.

Under cover of darkness, at nine o'clock on the evening

of August 26th, 1776, the British began long all-night march. Clinton reached the Jamaica pass about two hours before daybreak and made elaborate preparations for an attack. He sent forward patrols to feel out the enemy's positions, and then advanced, as Howe's report states, “with such a disposition as must have insured success, had he found the enemy in force to oppose him." 2

Prepared to make a grand assault on a little Gibraltar, Clinton could hardly believe his antennæ. His advance patrol reported that the vital pass was held by nobody at all except five sleepy officers who had surrendered in a daze.

Without so much as a gunshot, the left flank of the American position was turned and the way was open unopposed to the rear. And nobody even suspected that the British were marching blithely along behind the lines.

At the extreme right of the doomed rebels, Earl Stirling faced the Scotch Major-General Grant, the same man who had enraged Washington in 1758 on the Forbes expedition, when he took Washington's men with him to attack Fort Du Quesne, lost most of them, and got himself captured.3 He had been only a Major, then, and was now a MajorGeneral.

He had so far forgotten his own mishaps that when he became a member of Parliament, he had made a speech expressing his contempt for the American rebels, and declaring that with five thousand men he could march from one end of the continent to the other.

By an odd chance, Earl Stirling had been in England at the time and from the visitor's gallery had heard Grant deliver that boast. And now the two men faced each other, with Washington in the background.

Stirling made a speech to his men, told them of Grant's scorn, and said:

"He may have his five thousand men with him now-we

« ZurückWeiter »