The remaining 3,000 troops were deployed to guard four strategic passes cut by major roads leading to the top and beyond the heights.Ībout 550 troops were on the far left guarding Gowanus Road overlooking Gowanus Bay. This line ran north for 1.5 miles from the mill dam-Gowanus Creek area that emptied into Gowanus Bay to Wallabout Bay. The main line contained about 6,500 troops and were deployed around Brooklyn and faced southeast. Putnam was tasked with overseeing two defensive lines perpendicular to one another. Being in charge of the island's defenses, this would come back to haunt the Patriots in the coming battle. Unfortunately, he knew little about the terrain of Long Island. Sullivan was replaced by Major General Israel Putnam.
On August 23, a sharp skirmish occured between the British and the Patriot advance guard about 4 miles inland at Flatbush. He moved the bulk of his forces to Manhattan, believing that it would be the first target. Washington knew the difficulty in holding the city with the British fleet in control of the entrance to the harbor at the Narrows. They were slowly reinforced by ships in Lower New York Bay during the next month and a half, bringing their total force to 32,000 troops.
In July, the British, under the command of General William Howe, landed a few miles across the harbor from Manhattan on Staten Island. Washington understood that the city's harbor would provide an excellent base for the British Navy during the campaign, so he established defenses there and waited for the British to attack. In terms of troop deployment and fighting, it was the largest battle of the entire war.Īfter defeating the British in the Siege of Boston on March 17, 1776, General George Washington brought the Continental Army to defend the port city of New York, then limited to the southern end of Manhattan Island. It was a victory for the British and the beginning of a successful campaign that gave them control of the strategically important city of New York. The Battle of Long Island (aka Battle of Brooklyn and the Battle of Brooklyn Heights) was the first major battle of the war to take place after the United States declared its independence on July 4, 1776.
0 kommentar(er)
