As we told you yesterday, Washington got the word rather late that the battle wasn’t going down the way he thought it would, largely because the Jamaica Pass, which was rarely used, was the path that most of the British Army took against the Continental Army. At the same time, they left a contingent of troops in place as a distraction while they worked their way around.

That meant that when he got across the East River, all he could really do was watch from a distance while his troops took a beating. General John Sullivan’s men fought bravely but were cut down by Hessian artillery and bayonets. And when he realized that the main British force had come through the Jamaica Pass and would soon surround him, Sullivan ordered his men to retreat to Brooklyn Heights before he himself was captured.

Fortunately for Sullivan, he was released on parole to deliver a message to the Congress in Philadelphia, proposing an informal meeting to discuss ending the armed conflict.

After Sullivan’s speech to Congress, John Adams cynically commented on this diplomatic attempt, calling Sullivan a “decoy-duck” and accusing the British of sending Sullivan “to seduce us into a renunciation of our independence”; others noted that it appeared to be an attempt to blame Congress for prolonging the war. Congress did agree to a peace conference with the British, but that ultimately went nowhere.

General William Stirling held off the British for several hours but retreated when he also realized that he would be surrounded. He led 400 Maryland soldiers in a desperate fight at the Old Stone House, giving his soldiers time to flee before he, too, was taken prisoner. But we’ll get into this in a little more depth tomorrow.

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