(Editor’s Note: The Recorder is featuring a weekly series every Saturday over the next year on the founding of this nation leading up to the 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026 of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The series is being provided by the Alta Mira Chapter of the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution).
MANHATTAN AUGUST, 1776
After a crushing assault and many dead, injured, ill, and captured, Washington’s remaining troops were trapped between the East River and Brooklyn Heights. The British could have taken them easily and perhaps, ended the war. However, General Howe elected to rest his troops and lay siege in the morning.
The Americans were amazed. Israel Putnam is quoted as saying, “General Howe is either our friend or no general. He had our whole army in his power…Had he instantly followed up his victory, the consequences to the cause of liberty must have been dreadful.”
A storm blew in from the northeast for the next two days which kept Howe’s brother’s fleet from entering the East River. Rain drenched men, weapons, and trenches of both armies. Halfway into the second day, Washington called for “every kind of watercraft.” He would rely on two regiments from Marblehead and Salem as well as other Massachusetts coastal towns.
As darkness came, Washington ordered his men to move silently down from the heights to the ferry building, regiment by regiment. They were told not to speak or even cough.
All through the night, Massachusetts seamen sailed, rowed, or paddled more than 9,000 men to safety along with baggage wagons, horses, and artillery safely to Manhattan. As the sun began to rise, a dense fog settled on the river in time for 2 chaplains and their land lady arrived in time to to jump into one of the last boats. The boats leaving after them were fired upon, wounding five. Nevertheless, not one was left behind or killed.
The British were surprised by the quiet as they approached the narrow area in the morning. One is quoted as saying, “Driven to the corner of an island, hemmed within a narrow space, in their front, near twenty thousand men, in their rear, an arm of the sea a mile-wide…they secured a retreat without the loss of a man.” Another recorded, “Now I foresee they will give us trouble, and protract the war, Heaven knows how long.”
Indeed, the Americans escaped to fight again and for many years to follow.
SOURCE: The American Revolution: An Intimate History by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns