Around midday on Sunday, September 15, 1776, British and Hessian troops invaded Manhattan Island and sent the American troops running helter-skelter for safety.
First, several British ships anchored close to the island and fiercely bombarded the American fortifications along the shore of Kips Bay. Soon the American troops abandoned their trenches and made a panic-stricken, disorganized retreat — a rout, to use the military phrase. Then the British and Hessians, who had come over in boats from Long Island, landed without opposition and started marching across the island to cut off the retreating Americans.
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