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Battle of Long Island

The Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn and the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, was an action of the American Revolutionary War fought on August 27, 1776, at and near the western edge of Long Island in present-day Brooklyn. The British defeated the Continental Army and gained access to the strategically important Port of New York, which they held for the rest of the war. It was the first major battle to take place after the United States declared its independence on July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia. It was the largest battle of the Revolutionary War in terms of both troop deployment and combat.

This article is about the American Revolutionary War battle. For the Hofstra–Stony Brook rivalry, see Battle of Long Island (college rivalry).

After defeating the British in the siege of Boston on March 17, Continental Army commander-in-chief George Washington relocated his army to defend the port city of New York, located at the southern end of Manhattan Island. Washington understood that the city's harbor would provide an excellent base for the Royal Navy, so he established defenses there and waited for the British to attack. In July, the British, under the command of General William Howe, landed a few miles across the harbor on the sparsely populated Staten Island, where they were reinforced by a fleet of ships in Lower New York Bay over the next month and a half, bringing their total force to 32,000 troops. Washington knew the difficulty in holding the city with the British fleet in control of the entrance to the harbor at the Narrows, and accordingly moved the bulk of his forces to Manhattan, believing that it would be the first target.


On August 21, the British landed on the shores of Gravesend Bay in southwest Kings County, across the Narrows from Staten Island and more than a dozen miles south of the established East River crossings to Manhattan. After five days of waiting, the British attacked the American defenses on the Guan Heights. Unknown to the Americans, however, Howe had brought his main army around their rear and attacked their flank soon after. The Americans panicked, resulting in twenty percent losses through casualties and capture, although a stand by 400 Maryland and Delaware troops prevented greater losses. The remainder of the army retreated to the main defenses on Brooklyn Heights. The British dug in for a siege, but on the night of August 29–30, Washington evacuated the entire army to Manhattan without the loss of supplies or a single life. The Continental Army was driven out of Manhattan entirely after several more defeats and was forced to retreat through New Jersey to Pennsylvania.

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The Altar to Liberty: Minerva monument: The battle is commemorated with a monument, which includes a bronze statue of near the top of Battle Hill, the highest point of Brooklyn, in Green-Wood Cemetery. The statue was sculpted by Frederick Ruckstull and unveiled in 1920. The statue stands in the northwest corner of the cemetery and gazes directly at the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. In 2006, the Minerva statue was invoked in a successful defense to prevent a building from blocking the line of sight from the cemetery to the Statue of Liberty in the harbor. The annual Battle of Long Island commemoration begins inside the main Gothic arch entrance to Green-Wood Cemetery and marches up Battle Hill to ceremonies at the monument.[93]

Minerva

The : A freestanding Doric column in Fort Greene memorializing all those who died while kept prisoner on the British ships just off the shore of Brooklyn, in Wallabout Bay.[94]

Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument

Soldiers' Monument – . Memorializes the 200 seriously ill prisoners of the Battle of Long Island who were dumped on the beach at Milford the night of January 3, 1777.[92]: 195 

Milford, Connecticut

: A re-constructed farmhouse (c.1699) that was at the center of the Marylanders' delaying actions serves as a museum of the battle. It is located in J.J. Byrne Park, at Third Street and Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn, and features models and maps.[95]

The Old Stone House

Brooklyn, Battle Pass: along the eastern side of East Drive is a large granite boulder with a brass plaque affixed, and another marker lies near the road for the Dongan Oak, a very large and old tree felled to block the pass from the British advance. In addition, in the park resides the Line of Defense marker erected by the Sons of the American Revolution and, near the eastern edge of Long Meadow, the Maryland Monument & Maryland Memorial corinthian column.[96]

Prospect Park

The most significant legacy of the Battle of Long Island was that it showed there would be no easy victory, and that the war would be long and bloody.[92]: 2  The British took control of the strategically vital harbor and put New York City under military occupation until the treaty ending the war was signed. With the British military command in residence the city became the focal point for espionage and intelligence gathering. The area surrounding the city and the harbor remained in a near-constant state of conflict as a forage-war harassed the surrounding communities.


Commemorations of the battle include:


There are currently 30 existing units in the U.S. Army with lineages that go back to the colonial and revolutionary eras. Five Army National Guard units (101st Eng Bn,[97] 125th MP Co,[98] 175th Inf,[99] 181st Inf[100] and 198th Sig Bn)[101] and one Regular Army Field Artillery battalion (1–5th FA)[102] are derived from American units that participated in the Battle of Long Island.

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List of American Revolutionary War battles

. The 'Battle of Long Island' placed in overall sequence and strategic context.

American Revolutionary War §British New York counter-offensive

Regimental Surgeon of Col Prescott's Regiment who was stationed at Governor's Island

Dr. John Hart

Long Island order of battle

New York and New Jersey campaign

Whittimore, Henry "The Heroes of the American Revolution and their Descendants; The Battle of Long Island" 1897

Archived March 8, 2015, at archive.today

The Wild Geese Today – Honoring Those Who Saved Washington's Army

Website on Battle of Long Island

"The Old Stone House" museum

Howe's defense of his actions to Parliament in spring 1779

New York Guard 1/9th Battalion

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