The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn | Page 3

Richard Varick 127
" 39. Surgeon Eustis to Dr. Townsend 129
" 40. Captain Nathan Hale to his Brother 131
" 41. Extract from a Letter from New York 132
" 42. Extracts from the London Chronicle 133
" 43. Extract from the Memoirs of Colonel Rufus Putnam 136
" 44. Scattering Orders by Generals Lee, Spencer, Greene, and Nixon
141
" 45. General Lee to Colonel Chester 145
" 46. Captain Bradford's Account of the Capture of General Lee 146
" 47. General Oliver Wolcott to his Wife 147
" 48. Captain William Hull to Andrew Adams 151
" 49. Colonel Knox to his Wife 152
" 50. Colonel Haslet to Cæsar Rodney 156
" 51. Journal of Captain Thomas Rodney 158

" 52. Position of the British at the Close of the Campaign 162
" 53. Narrative of Lieutenant Jabez Fitch 167
" 54. Extract from the Journal of Lieutenant William McPherson 168
" 55. Deposition of Private Foster 169
" 56. Letters from Captain Randolph, of New Jersey 170
" 57. Extract from the Journal of Captain Morris 172
" 58. British Prisoners Taken on Long Island 174
" 59. A Return of the Prisoners Taken in the Campaign 175
" 60. List of American Officers Taken Prisoners at the Battle of Long
Island 176
" 61. List of American Non-Commissioned Officers and Soldiers Taken
Prisoners, Killed, or Missing, at the Battle of Long Island 180
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 187
THE MAPS 193
THE PORTRAITS 195
INDEX 197

LIST OF MAPS.
1. NEW YORK, BROOKLYN, AND ENVIRONS IN 1776.
2. PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND AND THE
BROOKLYN DEFENCES.
3. PRESIDENT STILES' SKETCH OF THE BROOKLYN WORKS.

4. EWING'S DRAUGHT OF THE LONG ISLAND ENGAGEMENT.
5. MAP OF NEW YORK CITY AND OF MANHATTAN ISLAND,
WITH THE AMERICAN DEFENCES.
6. FIELD OF THE HARLEM HEIGHTS "AFFAIR."

PORTRAITS.
1. JOHN LASHER, COLONEL FIRST NEW YORK CITY
BATTALION.
2. EDWARD HAND, COLONEL FIRST CONTINENTAL
REGIMENT, PENNSYLVANIA.
3. JOHN GLOVER, COLONEL FOURTEENTH CONTINENTAL
REGIMENT, MASSACHUSETTS.
4. JEDEDIAH HUNTINGTON, COLONEL SEVENTEENTH
CONTINENTAL REGIMENT, CONNECTICUT.


PART I.
THE CAMPAIGN.
CHAPTER I.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CAMPAIGN--PLANS AND
PREPARATIONS.
"Our affairs are hastening fast to a crisis; and the approaching
campaign will, in all probability, determine forever the fate of
America."

So wrote John Hancock, President of Congress, June 4th, 1776, to the
governors and conventions of the Eastern and Middle colonies, as, in
the name of that body, he reminded them of the gravity of the struggle
on which they had entered, and urged the necessity of increasing their
exertions for the common defence. That this was no undue alarm,
published for effect, but a well-grounded and urgent warning to the
country, is confirmed by the situation at the time and the whole train of
events that followed. The campaign of 1776 did indeed prove to be a
crisis, a turning-point, in the fortunes of the Revolution. It is not
investing it with an exaggerated importance, to claim that it was the
decisive period of the war; that, whatever anxieties and fears were
subsequently experienced, this was the year in which the greatest
dangers were encountered and passed. "Should the united colonies be
able to keep their ground this campaign," continued Hancock, "I am
under no apprehensions on account of any future one." "We expect a
very bloody summer in New York and Canada," wrote Washington to
his brother John Augustine, in May; and repeatedly, through the days
of preparation, he represented to his troops what vital interests were at
stake and how much was to depend upon their discipline and courage in
the field.
But let the significance of the campaign be measured by the record
itself, to which the following pages are devoted. It will be found to
have been the year in which Great Britain made her most strenuous
efforts to suppress the colonial revolt, and in which both sides mustered
the largest forces raised during the war; the year in which the issues of
the contest were clearly defined and America first fought for
independence; a year, for the most part, of defeats and losses for the
colonists, and when their faith and resolution were put to the severest
test; but a year, also, which ended with a broad ray of hope, and whose
hard experiences opened the road to final success. It was the year from
which we date our national existence. A period so interesting and, in a
certain sense, momentous is deserving of illustration with every fact
and detail that can be gathered.
* * * * *

What was the occasion or necessity for this campaign; what the plans
and preparations made for it both by the mother country and the
colonies?
The opening incidents of the Revolution, to which these questions refer
us,