NYBROOKLYN-L Archives

From: <>
Subject: [NYBROOKLYN] The Battle of Brooklyn Part 4
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2000 16:17:43 EST

Washington, who watched Alexander advance from a vantage point where Court
Street now crosses Atlantic Avenue, reportedly wrung his hands and cried out:
"Good God! what brave fellows I must this day lose! " Survivors remembered
the 'confusion and horror" as the fleeing Americans tried desperately to
cross eighty yards of muddy flats under the hail of British canister, grape,
and chain. "Some of them were mired and crying to their fellows for God's
sake help them out; but every man was intent on his own safety and no
assistance was renderes." After savage fighting on the Gowanus Road near
Cortelyou House (now known as the Old Stone House, at fifth Avenue and 3rd
Street), Alexander was captured. By 2 P.M. a but nine of the Marylanders had
been killed or taken prisoner. Thanks to their valor, however, hundreds of
other Americans managed to wade or swim to solid ground on the other side of
the creek, and hence to safety in Brooklyn Heights.
Has Howe kept up the chase, it is likely that the demoralized remnants of
Washington's army would have been driven into the East River. In only a few
hours of fighting roughly twelve hundred Americans had died, and another
fifteen hundred were wounded, captured, or missing -- among them three
generals and ninety-odd junior officers. The British, by contrast, reported
only sixty dead and three hundred wounded or missing.
Despite pleas by Clinton,Cornwallis, and others to finish what they had
begun, Howe halted and began preparations for a formal siege--either because
he didn't have the heart for another Bunker Hill-like frontal assault or
because he hoped that the rebels would give up without a struggle. Tuesday
evening and all day Wednesday his forces dug trenches and probed the American
defenses in a cold, soaking rain that made it impossible for the men on
either side to build campfires or keep their powder dry. Although the storm
ended by noon on Thursday the twenty-ninth, two days after the battle, Howe
continued to bide his time--and give Washington the opening for one of the
boldest strokes of War.

This thread:

• [NYBROOKLYN] The Battle of Brooklyn Part 2 by <>
  • [NYBROOKLYN] The Battle of Brooklyn Part 3 by <>

  • [NYBROOKLYN] The Battle of Brooklyn Part 4 by <>

  • [NYBROOKLYN] The Battle Of Brooklyn Part 5 by <>