How We Lost New York

 

   Lincoln is the most lovable president, but Washington is the one most deserving of our respect. He got us through the Revolutionary War, he oversaw the hammering out of the Constitution, and, as president, he established the precedents for managing the new country. He spent most of his adult life away from his beloved Mount Vernon. When he finally did retire, his well-meaning doctors bled him to death.

   Washington had his faults. He was a slave owner, though he did free his slaves on his death, the only founding father to do so. As a general, he was not considered a brilliant strategist. What he had was steadiness in the face of disaster. He needed all the gravitas he could muster on this day in 1776 in Brooklyn, New York as the British Army prepared to capture or wipe out his Continental Army.

   After the battles of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill the previous spring, Washington was given command of the Continental Army which had laid siege to the British Army in Boston. After forcing the British out of Boston, Washington moved the army down to New York. Everyone believed it was vital to hang onto the port of New York. The main part of the city was on Manhattan Island, flanked by Staten Island to the southwest and the town of Brooklyn on Long Island to the east. The islands were farm county and even Manhattan was heavily wooded north of the southern tip. Washington built forts on all three of these locations.

   Meanwhile the British were taking the rebellion of its American colonies seriously. They brought dozens of warships loaded with soldiers into New York's lower harbor, soon outnumbering the American forces two to one. As they forced the American soldiers off of Staten Island, some of the local rebel militias switched sides as soon as they saw the red coats marching ashore. 

   Washington figured the British would attack Brooklyn next and moved more of his troops there from Manhattan.  The British landed several thousand soldiers on the south side of Brooklyn. The Americans were defending the hills above the landing place, but at night a large part of the British force marched around the Americans on an unguarded Indian trail. When the sun came up the Americans were caught in a vise. 

   The battle turned into a rout.  A small contingent of Maryland and Delaware soldiers sacrificed itself to allow most of the army to retreat to Brooklyn Heights overlooking Manhattan. Several British generals wanted to continue the attack, but their commander, General Howe, opted for a siege instead. Howe figured Washington would realize his situation was hopeless and surrender.

   Instead of surrendering, Washington brought more troops over to Brooklyn from Manhattan. Then he decided his situation was hopeless and ordered a retreat across the river to Manhattan. Why the British didn't bring their warships up the East River to block the retreat remains one of the mysteries of Providence. That and the heavy fog that concealed the retreat from the British.

   Washington wanted to burn New York before he retreated to the north, but Congress forbade that, thinking the city could be retaken. Washington knew once the British took over they would not be ousted till the end of the war and he was right. While his soldiers suffered though a Valley Forge winter, the British enjoyed the comforts of the city. 

   For the next five years, Washington led the British on a merry chase around the colonies until he and the French navy trapped them in a different town with York in its name

Old New York