The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn Part 3

The new military base in this vicinity was thus fairly established, and the commander-in-chief, after personally inspecting the position, urged on the work of defence. As the regiments on their arrival had been quartered at haphazard in the city, he first arranged the army into five brigades, with the view of putting them into suitable and permanent camps. To the command of these he a.s.signed Heath, Spencer, Sullivan, Greene, and Stirling, in the order of their rank. The twenty-five battalions which made up the force at this date numbered together not quite ten thousand men.

But hardly were the orders for this new arrangement issued before events required its modification. Our affairs proving to be in a bad way in the direction of Canada, it became necessary to despatch General Sullivan with six regiments to the northward, and on the 29th of April the troops in New York were formed anew into four brigades, and a.s.signed to their respective camps. Heath's first brigade was posted on the Hudson, just without the city above the Ca.n.a.l Street marsh and about Richmond Hill; Spencer's second, on the East River, around the Rutgers' farm and Jones' Hill; and Stirling's fourth, in the centre, near Bayard's Hill and the Bowery Road; while Greene's third brigade was a.s.signed to "the ground marked out upon Long Island." But one work now lay before these soldiers, namely, to put New York and its vicinity in a complete state of defence in the shortest possible time. Howe and his Boston army, it was now known, had gone to Halifax instead of sailing for New York; but he could still reach, and, with reinforcements from England, attack the city before the Americans were ready to receive him. The situation, accordingly, admitted of no delays, and digging was made the order of the day. No one could have antic.i.p.ated, however, that preparations were to be continued full four months longer before active campaigning opened.

This interval of fortifying is not without its interest; and we may cross, first, with Greene to Long Island, to note what further was done towards securing that "capital" point in the general system of defence.

From the orders of April 24th and 25th it would appear that it was Was.h.i.+ngton's original intention to give the Brooklyn command, not to Greene, but to Sullivan. The latter was a.s.signed to the Third Brigade before going to Canada, and on the 25th the encampment of this brigade was ordered to be marked out "upon Long Island." The fact that Sullivan was senior to Greene in rank, and was ent.i.tled, as between the two, to the honor and responsibility of the separate command, was doubtless the ground of his a.s.signment in this case. But a greater responsibility was reserved for Sullivan in Canada, and Greene was sent to Long Island. Owing to bad weather, it was the 3d or 4th of May before the latter crossed with troops. He took with him his old brigade, consisting of Colonel Edward Hand's Pennsylvania Riflemen, his two favorite Rhode Island regiments under Colonels James Mitch.e.l.l Varnum and Daniel Hitchc.o.c.k, and Colonel Moses Little's regiment from Ma.s.sachusetts. These ranked as the First, Ninth, Eleventh, and Twelfth of the Continental Establishment, and were as well armed and under as good discipline as any troops in Was.h.i.+ngton's army. Hand's regiment, numbering four hundred and seventy officers and men, was already on Long Island, having come from Boston in advance of the brigades, and was engaged in scouting and patrol duty at the Narrows and along the coast. Varnum's, Hitchc.o.c.k's, and Little's, having an average strength of three hundred and eighty each, were the only troops around Brooklyn.[31] The Long Island militia were not as yet in the field, and the small company of Brooklyn troopers under Captain Waldron and Lieutenant Boerum, which had patrolled the coast during the early spring, do not appear on duty again until late in the season.

[Footnote 31: Ward's, we have seen, was the first regiment stationed on Long Island. It was there from February 24th until about the end of March. The _N.Y. Packet_ of February 29th, 1776, says: "Sat.u.r.day last Col. Ward's regiment arrived here from Connecticut, and embarked in boats and landed on Na.s.sau [Long] Island." Lee gave orders that a Pennsylvania battalion, supposed to be on its way to New York, should encamp from the Wallabout to Gowa.n.u.s, but no Pennsylvania troops are included in Stirling's return, and certainly none were on Long Island until Hand's riflemen came from Boston. It is probable that Colonel Chas. Webb's Connecticut Continentals relieved Ward, as Captain Hale writes that it had been there three weeks, sometime before May 20th.

Greene's brigade were the next troops to cross over.]

It now remained for these regiments to go on fortifying the water-front of this site to keep the s.h.i.+ps out of the river, and, in addition, to secure themselves against an attack by land. What Lee's plan was in reference to Columbia Heights has already been seen. Here he proposed to establish a camp with Fort Stirling and the Citadel among its defences, the former of which had been nearly completed and the latter begun by Ward's regiment and the inhabitants. In consequence, however, of a move made by General Putnam soon after his arrival, it had evidently become necessary to enlarge this plan.

Governor's Island, just off the edge of which were moored the British men-of-war, had not been occupied by either Lee or Stirling; but it lay within cannon-shot of the Battery and Columbia Heights, and an enemy once lodged there could work us mischief. General Putnam noticed its position, and he had not been here three days before he wrote, April 7th, to the President of Congress: "After getting the works [in New York] in such forwardness as will be prudent to leave, I propose immediately to take possession of Governor's Island, which I think a very important post. Should the enemy arrive here, and get post there, it will not be possible to save the city, nor could we dislodge them without great loss."[32] On the very next night he carried out his proposal, as appears from the following account of the manoeuvre preserved among the papers of Colonel G. Selleck Silliman, of Fairfield, Connecticut, who had recently come down to relieve the troops under Ward and Waterbury:

[Footnote 32: _Force_, Fourth Series, vol. v., p. 811.]

"_Tuesday Morning, 9th April._--Last Evening Draughts were made from a Number of Regiments here, mine among the Rest, to the Amount of 1,000 Men. With these and a proper Number of Officers Genl Putnam at Candle lighting embarked on Board of a Number of Vessels with a large Number of intrenching Tools and went directly on the Island a little below the City called Nutten [Governor's] Island where they have been intrenching all Night and are now at work, and have got a good Breast Work there raised which will cover them from the fire of the s.h.i.+ps; and it is directly in the Way of the s.h.i.+p coming up to the Town. The Asia has fallen down out of Gun Shot from this Place and it deprives the s.h.i.+ps of the only Watering Place they have here without going down toward the Hook."[33] There was something of the Bunker Hill flavor about this move, and it was Prescott's Bunker Hill regiment that was first stationed[34] on the Island, which subsequently became one of the strongest posts of the position. At the same time another party occupied Red Hook,[35] on Long Island, which commanded the channel between the Hook and Governor's Island.

[Footnote 33: MS. letter from Colonel Silliman to his wife, in possession of Mrs. O.P. Hubbard, New York City.]

[Footnote 34: General Orders, April 16th, 1776: ... "Colonel Prescott's Regiment is to encamp on Governour's Island as soon as the weather clears. They are to give every a.s.sistance in their power to the works erecting thereon."...]

[Footnote 35: "Monday night 1000 Continental troops stationed here went over and took possession of Governor's Island and began to fortify it; the same night a regiment went over to Red Hook and fortified that place likewise." _New York Packet, April 11, 1776._]

The occupation by Putnam of these two points, which was clearly necessary for a more effective defence of the East River, required, or at least resulted in, the modification of Lee's plan, and the adoption of a new line on Long Island. It was now decided to hold the Brooklyn peninsula with a chain of works thrown up across the neck from Wallabout Bay to the Gowa.n.u.s Marsh; and it was in this vicinity that the encampment for Greene's brigade was marked out by Mifflin, the quartermaster-general, and afterwards approved by Was.h.i.+ngton.[36] By the fortunate recovery of the daily orders issued by General Greene on Long Island, and also of original sketches of the site, it has become possible to fix the location of this line and the names of the works with almost entire accuracy.

[Footnote 36: General Orders, April 25th, 1776: "The encampment of the Third Brigade to be marked out in like manner, upon Long Island, on Sat.u.r.day morning. The chief engineers, with the quartermasters, etc., from each regiment, to a.s.sist the quartermaster-general in that service. As soon as the general has approved of the encampments marked out, the troops will be ordered to encamp...."]

To defend the approach between the bay and marsh, the engineers laid out three princ.i.p.al forts and two redoubts, with breastworks connecting them. The site occupied was a favorable one. On the left rose the high ground, now known as Fort Greene Place or Was.h.i.+ngton Park, one hundred feet above the sea-level; and on the right, between the main road and the marsh, were lower elevations on lands then owned by Rutgert Van Brunt and Johannes Debevoise. The flanks were thus well adapted for defence, and they were near enough each other to command the ground between them. Two of the works were erected on the right of the road, and received the names of Fort Greene and Fort Box; three were on the left, and were known as the Oblong Redoubt, Fort Putnam, and the redoubt "on its left." In view of the fact that local historians heretofore have put but three fortifications on this line, where, it is now well established, there were five, a more particular description of them becomes necessary. Extending from right to left, they were laid out as follows:[37]

[Footnote 37: Consult map accompanying this work, ent.i.tled "Plan of the Battle of Long Island, and of the Brooklyn Defences in 1776;" also the note in regard to it under the t.i.tle "Maps," in Part II.]

FORT BOX.--It has been supposed that the fort by this name occupied an independent site south-west of the main line, with the object of defending Gowa.n.u.s Creek where it was crossed by a mill-dam. That it stood, however, on the right of the line is beyond question. Thus the letter of a spectator of the battle[38] says: "Our lines fronted the east. On the left, near the lowest part of the above-described bay [Wallabout], was Fort Putnam, near the middle Fort Greene, and towards the creek Fort Box." In his order of June 1st, General Greene directs five companies to take post "upon the right in Fort Box;" and on August 16th a fatigue party is detailed "to form the necessary lines from Fort Box to Fort Putnam," clearly indicating that the two were on the same continuous line. To confirm the correctness of this locality, we have the fort and its name distinctly indicated on the outline map sketched by President Stiles, of Yale College, in his Diary of Revolutionary Events. By reference to the fac-simile of the sketch here presented, it will be seen that although there are errors in the drawing, the relative position of the princ.i.p.al works is preserved, and the site of Fort Box finally determined. It stands nearest Gowa.n.u.s Creek, and on the right of the other forts. The work appears to have been of a diamond shape, and was situated on or near the line of Pacific Street, a short distance above Bond.[39]

[Footnote 38: "Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society," vol.

ii., p. 494. "Battle of Long Island." By Thomas W. Field.]

[Footnote 39: As the British demolished all the Brooklyn works very soon after their capture, it would be difficult to fix the exact site of some of them, but for data which have been preserved. That they were destroyed is certain. Baurmeister, the Hessian major, states that Howe directed the Hessian division to level the "Brocklands-Leinen,"

but recalled the order when General De Heister represented that "this could not be done by soldiers without compensation, especially as it would be the work of four weeks." According to tradition, the inhabitants levelled them by Howe's orders. General Robertson testified in 1779 that "there were no vestiges of the lines soon after they were taken." Cornwallis on the same occasion said that, being detached to Newtown after the battle, he had "no opportunity of going to Brooklyn till the lines were nearly demolished." But with the a.s.sistance of Lieutenant Ratzer's accurate topographical map of New York and Brooklyn of 1766-7, the Hessian map published in vol. ii. of the Society's _Memoirs_, the plan of the lines thrown up in the 1812 war, and other doc.u.ments, the forts of 1776 can readily be located.

Ratzer's map shows all the elevations where works would naturally be put; and the Hessian map, which is a reduction of Ratzer's, adds the works. The accuracy of the latter, which heretofore could not be proved, is now established by the fact that the position of the forts corresponds to the location a.s.signed them relatively in Greene's orders. There can be little doubt that this map was made from actual surveys soon after the battle, and that the shape as well as the site of the works and lines is preserved in it. Another guide is the 1812 line as marked out by Lieutenant Gadsden, of the Engineer Corps. A copy of the original plan of this line, furnished by the War Department, shows a close correspondence with the Hessian draft. The same points are fortified in each case. Fort "Fireman" of 1812 occupies the site, or very nearly the site, of Fort Box; Fort "Masonic," that of Fort Greene; Redoubt "c.u.mmings," that of the Oblong Redoubt; and "Fort Greene," that of Fort Putnam. The site of the "redoubt on the left" was inclosed, in 1812, in the outer intrenchment which was carried around the brow of the hill. Although the British obliterated all marks of the Brooklyn defences of 1776, we thus find nature and the records enabling us to re-establish them to-day.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: SKETCH OF THE BROOKLYN WORKS IN 1776.

FACSIMILE FROM THE STILES DIARY

Yale College Library.

_"From one who was stationed at Red Hook all last Summer together with a Map of the ground, I learn our Fortifications there were as I here draw them out on the Peninsula around Brooklyn Church." Dr. Stiles, March 21, 1777._

_J. Bien Photo. Lith. N.Y._]

As to its name, we must a.s.sume that it was called Fort Box in honor of Major Daniel Box, Greene's brigade-major (an office corresponding to the present a.s.sistant adjutant-general), whose services were then highly appreciated. Box first appears as an old British soldier, who had been wounded in the French war, and afterwards as an organizer and drill-master of Independent companies in Rhode Island, which subsequently furnished many fine officers to the Continental army.[40]

In a letter to Colonel Pickering in 1779, Greene speaks of him in flattering terms, as having been invaluable in the earlier years of the war. That he was something of an engineer, as well as an excellent brigade-major, is evident from the fact that he a.s.sisted in marking out the lines around Boston in 1775, and later superintended the construction of Fort Lee, on the Jersey side. No doubt he had much to say about the building of the Brooklyn lines, and of the work in particular which bore his name.

[Footnote 40: MS. letter of General Greene to Colonel Pickering, August 24, 1779, in possession of Prof. Geo. Was.h.i.+ngton Greene, East Greenwich, L.I.]

FORT GREENE.--About three hundred yards to the left of Fort Box, a short distance above Bond Street, between State and Schermerhorn, stood Fort Greene, star-shaped, mounting six guns, and provided with a well and magazines. Colonel Little, its commander, describes it as the largest of the works on Long Island; and this statement is corroborated by the fact that its garrison consisted of an entire regiment, which was not the case with the other forts, and that it was provided with nearly double the number of pikes. It occupied an important position on one of the small hills near the centre of that part of the line lying south-west of Was.h.i.+ngton Park, and its guns commanded the approach by the Jamaica highway. Being the princ.i.p.al work on the line, the engineers, or possibly Little's regiment, named it after their brigade commander.

OBLONG REDOUBT.--Still further to the left, and on the other side of the road, a small circular redoubt, called the "Oblong Redoubt," was thrown up on what was then a piece of rising ground at the corner of De Kalb and Hudson avenues. The reason of its name is not apparent.

Greene's orders refer to it as the "Oblong Square" and the "Oblong Redoubt." Major Richard Thorne, of Colonel Remsen's Long Island militia, speaks of being on guard at "Fort Oblong" all night a short time before the battle.[41] This redoubt had very nearly direct command of the road, and in connection with Fort Greene was depended upon to defend the centre of the line.

[Footnote 41: "_Force_," Fifth Series, vol. ii., p. 202.]

FORT PUTNAM.--From the Oblong Redoubt, the line ascended north-easterly to the top of the hill included in Was.h.i.+ngton Park, where the fourth in the chain of works was erected. This was Fort Putnam. Star-shaped like Fort Greene, it was somewhat smaller than the latter, and mounted four or five garrison guns. Its strong natural position, however, made it the salient point of the line, and it became, as will be seen, the main object of attack by the British during and after the battle.[42] The fort may have taken its name, as usually supposed, from Major-General Israel Putnam; but it is altogether more probable that it was named after Colonel Rufus Putnam, the chief engineer, who marked out many of the works on Long Island as well as in New York, and who must have frequently crossed to give directions in their construction.

[Footnote 42: Mr. Field states that the site of Fort Putnam was unfortunately overlooked by the high ground east of it, Greene and his engineers probably not noticing the fact until after the woods were cut down. The official surveys of the ground, made before it was levelled, show no such commanding elevation, the Fort Putnam Hill being as high as any _within range_; nor can we credit Greene or his officers with fortifying a point which was untenable, or with not observing that it was untenable. As the engineers of 1812 occupied the same site, it could be safely concluded, were no surveys preserved, that it was entirely defensible.]

REDOUBT ON THE LEFT.--At the eastern termination of the hill, a short distance from Fort Putnam, and on a lower grade, stood the last of the works, which is identified in the orders and letters of the day as the "redoubt on the left." It was a small affair, and occupied a point at about the middle of the present c.u.mberland Street, nearly midway between Willoughby and Myrtle avenues; but in 1776 the site was twenty feet higher, and appeared as a well-defined spur extending out from Fort Putnam. As it was commanded by the latter, its capture by the enemy would bring them no advantage, while as an American defence it could materially a.s.sist in protecting the left.

Between these five works a line of connecting intrenchments was laid out, while on the right it was to be continued from Fort Box to the marsh, and on the left from the Fort Putnam Hill, "in a straight line," to the swamp at the edge of Wallabout Bay. Antic.i.p.ating their construction, we may say that each work became a complete fortification in itself, being surrounded with a wide ditch, provided with a sally-port, its sides lined with sharpened stakes, the garrison armed with spears to repel storming parties, and the work supplied with water and provisions to withstand a siege if necessary. The greater part of the line was picketed with abattis, and the woods cut down to give full sweep to the fire of the guns. As every thing depended upon holding this front, the necessity of making it as strong as possible was fully realized, and at the time of the engagement in August it was considered a sufficient barrier to the enemy's advance.[43]

[Footnote 43: Some important and interesting information relative to the main line at Brooklyn was brought out in 1779 at the examination of Captain John Montressor, before the Parliamentary Committee which investigated Howe's conduct of the war. Montressor was a British army engineer, acting as Howe's aid on Long Island. Being one of the general's witnesses, he naturally made out the American position as strong as possible, but the main facts of his testimony are to be accepted. The examination was in part as follows:

"_Q._ Can you give a particular account of the state of those [Brooklyn] lines?

_A._ Yes--the lines were constructed from Wallabout Bay, on one side to a swamp that intersects the land between the main land and Read Hook, which terminates the lines. The lines were about a mile and a half in extent, including the angles, cannon proof, with a chain of five redoubts, or rather fortresses, with ditches, as had also the lines that formed the intervals, raised on the parapet and the counterscarp, and the whole surrounded with the most formidable abbaties.

_Q._ Were those lines finished on every part, from the swamp formed by the Wallabout on the left, to the swamp on the right?

_A._ Yes.

_Q._ Do you know the particulars of the left part of the line towards the Wallabout? Have you any reason for knowing that?

_A._ The line runs straight from the rising ground where Fort Putnam was constructed, in a straight line to the swamp that terminates itself at the bottom of Wallabout Bay.

_Q._ Was there a possibility of a single man's pa.s.sing round the left part of the line?

_A._ There was not. After entering the lines, Sir William Howe, on the enemy's evacuating, followed the road to the point, to examine and see if he could get out at that part, which he could not do, and we were obliged to return and go out of a sally port of the lines....

_Q._ Can you say of your own knowledge, that the right redoubt of the lines at Brooklyn had an abattis before it?

_A._ I have already said that the whole had an abattis before it.

[He produces an actual survey of the lines.]...

_Q._ If any one of these redoubts were taken, did not they flank the line in such a manner to the right and left that the enemy could not remain in the lines?

_A._ I have already said, that they could not be taken by a.s.sault, but by approaches, as they were rather fortresses than redoubts."--_A View of the Evidence Relative to the Conduct of the American War under Sir William Howe_, etc.; second edition; London, 1779. _Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York_, 1870, p. 884.