LONG ISLAND, Battle of, one of the early American defeats in the Revolutionary War, was fought 27 Aug. 1776, in Brooklyn, N. Y., mainly within the present limits of Pros pect Park, the column in Battle Pass to the memory of the 400 Maryland troops who fell in the battle, and the foundation remains of the redoubt on Lookout Hill, marking the central point of defense and attack. After the evacu ation of Boston by the British, Washington made strenuous efforts to fortify New York and its approaches. General Greene, in com mand of a considerable body of troops, mostly raw recruits, was entrusted with the defense of Long Island, and constructed a line of en trenchments and redoubts from Wallabout Bay to Gowanus Cove. The main works at the Wallabout end were on the hill afterward known as Fort Greene, now marked by Wash ington Park. At Gowanus Cove, a battery was erected at Red Hook and a fort on Governor's Island, nearly opposite. About two and a half miles from the entrenchments, between them and the southwest side of the island, the range of low hills in this section was then densely wooded and crossed by three roads; one on the right of the works passing near the Narrows to Gravesend Bay, the central one through Flat bush and the third far to the left through Bed ford to Jamaica. In the midst of his prepara tions, General Greene fell ill and the com mand devolved upon General Sullivan, then just returned from Lake Champlain. Unacquainted with the ground and with Greene's plans the change of command caused considerable con fusion. Nine thousand British troops landed in Gravesend Bay on 22 August without resist ance; they were commanded by Sir Henry Clinton, assisted by Lords Cornwallis and Percy, General Grant and Sir William Erskine. Lord Cornwallis, rapidly advancing to the central pass, found it occupied by the rifle regiment of Colonel Hand, and without risking an en counter took up a position at Flatbush. Wash ington inspected the American lines on the 24th and placed General Putnam in command. The following day the British were reinforced by two brigades of Hessian troops, under Gen eral De Heister, and on the 26th began to carry out their plan of operations. The road through Bedford to Jamaica unfortunately had been comparatively neglected by the Americans, and eluding the patrol, the British contingent under General Clinton, accompanied by General Howe, the commander-in-chief, and by Lords Percy and Cornwallis, guided by a local Tory, gained possession of the road and neighboring heights undiscovered during the night of 26-27 August. In the morning General Grant, with the left wing of the British army, advanced along the road by Gravesend and the Narrows, and was resisted by Colonel Atlee with a guard of Penn sylvania and New York militia, who retired fighting until he had fallen back upon Gen.
William Alexander (Lord Stirling), whose two regiments had hastened to his assistance. Here active firing was kept up by both sides without an attempt at a general action. At the same time, as diversions, De Heister opened up a cannonade from Flatbush upon Colonel Hand and his riflemen, while the guns of the British war-vessels were trained upon the Red Hook battery. Meanwhile on the right Clinton opened • his guns upon the Americans, and at this signal De Heister advanced to storm the central pass and the redoubt of which General Sullivan had taken command. The latter, who found his left flank engaged and himself in danger of being surrounded, ordered a retreat, but not soon enough to escape the British light infantry, who drove him back upon De Heister and his Hes sians. The Americans fought with desperate valor, a large body cutting their way through the entrenchments, the rest who were not killed either escaping among the hills or surrendering as prisoners, among the latter being General Sullivan. On the left Colonel Atlee and Lord Stirling, who had maintained their position in front of General Grant, found themselves tut off by Cornwallis. They gallantly attacked the enemy with such .deterrninatjon that the British held their ground only by the assistance of re inforcements, when Stirling seeing the useless ness of further resistance surrendered. Having forced all the approaches the British proceeded to invest the American works.
Washington arrived in the evening and took command, the following day bringing over ad ditional troops. But with the formidable British force opposed to him, and indications that the British fleet intended moving up the river so as to cut the force in Brooklyn entirely off, Wash ington, on the night of 29-30, favored by a thick mist, made a strategic and masterly retreat to Manhattan, greatly to the discomfiture of the British, who were unaware of the movement until some time after the last American had crossed in safety. The Americans lost over 900 men in the battle, while the British loss in killed, wounded and missing was 400. Consult Carrington, H. B., of the American Revolution> (Brooklyn 1876) ; Dawson, H. B., of the United States' (New York 1858) • Field, T. W., of Long (Brooklyn 1869) ; Johnston, H. P., of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn) (ib. 1878) ; Raye-Smith, E. M., of Brooklyn' (New York 1913) ; Mather, F. G., The Ref ugees of 1776 from Long Island to Connecticut> (Albany 1913), and Adams, C. F., of Long Island' (in American Historical Review, Neyv York 1896).