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

Colonel Haslet to C?sar 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, are a familiar chapter in its history. On the morning of the 19th of April, 1775, an expedition of British regulars, moving out from Boston, came upon a company of provincials hastily forming on Lexington Common, twelve miles distant. The attitude of these countrymen represented the last step to which they had been driven by the aggressive acts of the home Parliament. Up to this moment the controversy over colonial rights and privileges had been confined, from the days of the Stamp Act, to argument, protest, petition, and legislative proceedings; but these failing to convince or conciliate either party, it only remained for Great Britain to exercise her authority in the case with force.
The expedition in question had been organized for the purpose of seizing the military stores belonging to the Massachusetts Colony, then collected at Concord, and which the king's authorities regarded as too dangerous