Invasion of Long Island
One step closer to battle: the British and Hessian troops moved from Staten Island to Long Island, in preparation for a major attack on the rebels stationed there. As at Staten Island earlier in the month, the Americans didn’t try to stop them from landing — and even if they had, the landing operations were covered by several British warships, including the Carcass and Thunder, which were bomb ketches (vessels made specifically for bombarding targets on shore). As they pulled back from the shore to their main positions a few miles away, however, the Americans did burn some grain, so as to keep it from falling into enemy hands.
One Hessian officer recorded:
We weighed anchor and lay close over against Long Island. The ships of war came within range of the shore and pointed their cannon at the beach. At eight in the morning the whole coast swarmed with boats. At half-past eight the admiral hoisted the red flag, and in a moment all the boats reached the shore. The English and Scotch, with the artillery, were first disembarked, and then the brigade of Colonel van Donop (the only Hessians there). Not a soul opposed our landing. This was the second blunder of the rebels since I have been in America. Their first mistake was when we disembarked on Staten Island, for they might then have destroyed a good many of our people with two six-pounders, and now they might have made it very nasty for us. We marched on, equally undisturbed, through Gravesend, and reached Flatbush towards evening. Three hundred riflemen had been there a little while before us. We sent a few cannon shots after them, set out our pickets, and slept quietly all night. I got two horses as booty, one of which I sent to the colonel and gave the other to my St. Martin for a pack-horse.
Ambrose Serle, a British civilian who served as secretary to Admiral Lord Howe, went on shore after most of the troops had landed. He wrote that “The Soldiers & Sailors seemed as merry as in a Holiday, and regaled themselves with the fine apples, which hung every where upon the Trees in great abundance. … It was really diverting to see Sailors & Apples tumbling from the Trees together.”
But not everybody was in a holiday mood. The battle might take place any day now, and it wouldn’t be a minor one: 15,000 troops had landed on the island that day. With that in mind, American Colonel Moses Little wrote a brief letter to his son:
I have thought fit to send you my will—you will take all charge necessary &c.
The enemy this day landed on this Island & marched within 3 miles of our camp. Three or four regiments lodge within 2 miles of the enemy. I expect morning will bring us to battle.
Sources
- “Disembarkation of the Troops at Gravesend Bay under the Command of General Collier, R.N. (August 22, 1776)”. By John Baily (British, active 1798–1820). Published by Joyce Gold (London), November 30, 1814. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/388678
- The Hessians and the Other German Auxiliaries of Great Britain in the Revolutionary War, ed. Edward J. Lowell, 59-60.
- Faden, William. A plan of New York Island, with part of Long Island, Staten Island & east New Jersey, with a particular description of the engagement on the woody heights of Long Island, between Flatbush and Brooklyn, on the 27th of August between His Majesty’s forces commanded by General Howe and the Americans under Major General Putnam, with the subsequent disposition of both armies. London, 1776. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/gm71000864/.
- The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence, 192.
- Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society, vol. 3: The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn, 43.