250 and Counting

Category: Long Island History

  • Meet The New Boss–August 24, 1776

    Cover art for August 24, 1776: Engraving of Israel Putnam during the Revolution. via Library of Congress.

    That George Washington chose to add Israel Putnam to his leadership rolls in Brooklyn isn’t specifically mysterious. What is mysterious is that Putnam was added rather than used as a replacement for someone else.

    As a result of that move, there were essentially two men in charge on Long Island, with Putnam as the theater commander and General John Sullivan, who’d arrived only a couple of days earlier, in charge of ..something else?

    I’m reminded of a story from when I was a youngster and my family went up to Fort William Henry, on Lake George in upstate New York. It was built by the British during the French and Indian War, but it wasn’t built to withstand artillery, so when the battle started, the fort had to surrender pretty quickly. At any rate, one of the docents, dressed in period clothing, demonstrated how a flintlock rifle worked: he set up the powder, etc, put a musket ball into the gun (my memory is hazy on the specific details here), then he took aim, out toward the lake so nobody would get hit…and the gun misfired, the hammer simply banging down ineffectually.

    >click<

    And someone in the tour group, who may have been my mother (is the statute of limitations up yet?) said, “No wonder you lost.”

    Same thing happened on Long Island: poor planning, confusion regarding leadership roles, and being generally outnumbered.

    No wonder we lost. (oop, spoiler alert.)

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  • Reacting to Brooklyn–August 23, 1776

    Cover art for August 23, 1776: Map showing Howe's attack upon Washington's forces on Long Island. via Library of Congress.

    The day after the British landed on Long Island, George Washington was disheartened to learn that army provisioning wasn’t at the level he’d expected, despite his orders only a week earlier.

    It was bad enough that he’d been caught a little flatfooted by both the magnitude and the direction of the British movement, now he discovers that troops he’d ordered to move had done so without proper provisions.

    So, he took the time to create new orders regarding army provisioning and ensure that the General Commissary had the manpower to do what it needed to do. He also took the time to write an inspirational note to the troops, which we couldn’t do in a two-minute show, but which read thus:

    The Enemy have now landed on Long Island, and the hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty—that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men: Remember how your Courage and Spirit have been dispised, and traduced by your cruel invaders; though they have found by dear experience at Boston, Charlestown and other places, what a few brave men contending in their own land, and in the best of causes can do, against base hirelings and mercenaries—Be cool, but determined; do not fire at a distance, but wait for orders from your officers—It is the General’s express orders that if any man attempt to skulk, lay down, or retreat without Orders he be instantly shot down as an example, he hopes no such Scoundrel will be found in this army; but on the contrary, every one for himself resolving to conquer, or die, and trusting to the smiles of heaven upon so just a cause, will behave with Bravery and Resolution: Those who are distinguished for their Gallantry, and good Conduct, may depend upon being honorably noticed, and suitably rewarded: And if this Army will but emulate, and imitate their brave Countrymen, in other parts of America, he has no doubt they will, by a glorious Victory, save their Country, and acquire to themselves immortal Honor.

    Yes, I said that cowardice “will not be tolerated” in the episode; clearly I under-sold that one.

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  • The Battle Begins–August 20, 1776

    Cover art for August 20, 1776: Artillery Retreat from Long Island, chromolithograph by The Werner Company, 1899. via Library of Congress.

    It’s been coming for at least two months, and the Battle of Long Island has finally begun.

    As we’ve noted a few times the past couple of days, George Washington had to make a few educated guesses about what the British were planning to do, but this left his troops thinly spread throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan, which left the Continental Army at a big disadvantage.

    While numerous skirmishes have broken out up and down the coast between the British and American militia forces from time to time, this was Washington’s first major tangle with the British Army. That it didn’t go so great wasn’t his fault; that it didn’t go as badly as it could have is entirely his doing, as we’ll learn in a few days.

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  • A Fort Grows in Brooklyn–April 10, 1776

    Cover art for April 10, 1776: a contemporary map of Brooklyn. Red Hook is in the center of the picture, just below the "rt" in "Fort".

    The construction of Fort Defiance in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn made perfect sense. That part of the peninsula sticks out into New York Harbor and provides an excellent view of anything that might be sailing in or out.

    Red Hook comes from the Dutch Roode Hoek, “hoek” translating to “point”, which can still be seen in modern-day maps. The whole area, what we now call Red Hook and Gowanus, was settled by the Dutch in the 1630s.

    Red Hook was some swampy land when the Dutch moved in. But the Dutch know something about swampy land, and they got straight to work, filling in lakes and re-channeling waterways. They began farming the land, including orchards of fruit trees.

    After the war broke out and the Continental Army drove the British from Boston, George Washington sent Brigadier General William Alexander to Brooklyn to see what could be done defensively. A plan was developed to build two forts along the Brooklyn Heights, about a mile and a half apart. Fort Greene would be the furthest east, Fort Defiance would be the furthest west. Across the channel on Governor’s Island, another fort would be built, so that British ships could be fired on from both sides.

    Now, when we say “fort,” we’re not talking about something made of wood or stone. Plenty of those did exist, but not here. This was more like a breastworks built of earth and stone, which had a few cannons near the top. There were three of these breastworks connected by trenches, and they took up most of the island on which they stood. (Incidentally, Mike was correct about the island not existing anymore; the space was filled in and is now part of the larger land.) This took only a few days to put together; the fort at Governor’s Island was more like what one would expect to see.

    By the time the British arrived, the Continental Army was quite ready from a defensive standpoint. But the British were much larger in number and had a Navy besides. Stay tuned; it’s going to be an exciting summer.

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  • Preparing To Defend New York–January 7, 1775

    Cover art for January 7, 1775: Portrait of Jonathan Trumbull and his wife Faith, painted by his son John Trumbull, 1778. via New York Public Library.
    Portrait of Jonathan Trumbull and his wife Faith, painted by his son John Trumbull, 1778. via New York Public Library.

    There are many letters between George Washington and Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull. Presumably something as simple as proximity to another leader was attractive to both of them, especially in an age where letters took several days to go a hundred miles.

    We have to presume that the two men had very reliable people transporting these letters, given how much detail is in this one regarding Washington’s guesses about British troop movements and exactly what he was going to do about it. It’s certainly been the case before that correspondence has been intercepted by the British in the past, and the Postal Service hadn’t been up and running for very long by that point.

    At any rate, Washington was correct in that the British were taking a hard look at New York City (still mostly just the southern tip of Manhattan, mind you) and the palisades along the Hudson River, which was still called the North River then. Where he was likely incorrect was in the timing of that move, which may have resulted in a little complacency.

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  • September 23, 1775: Independence Day on Long Island

    Cover art for September 23, 1775: a 1777 map of the western end of Long Island by John Montresor. via the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, Boston Public Library.

    For those of you new to this podcast (or those who haven’t been paying attention), I grew up on Long Island, and have lived or worked pretty much from one end of the map in today’s cover art to the other at one time or another.

    For instance, my childhood home is just about where the Long Island portion of the map ends at the top right.

    I did my undergrad work approximately where the “H” appears just above Hempstead. I got my graduate degree at a school along that road between Oyster Bay and Huntington.

    So when a story like this pops up, it’s a lot of fun for me to research and record, because I learn so much.

    One of the names I expected to see in my research didn’t turn up, however. That would be the Denton family, which was located in modern-day New Hyde Park. They were also quite influential in the development of the Hempstead area, but that was in the 1600s. By the 1770s they were a revered name but not especially influential.

    The Denton home, a mansion for its time, still stands today. It was empty for several years when I was a young adult, then it became a restaurant for a bit. The McDonald’s Corporation purchased the property, intending to knock it down and build a new restaurant there, but a local historical society intervened and got the building historic status. After a couple of years of negotiation, McDonald’s renovated the building so that it retains its colonial-era charm. If you’re ever in the area, check it out. It’s one of the coolest McDonald’s restaurants you’ll ever see, inside and out.

    According to the person who posted this photo to Wikipedia, he caught grief from store management for trying to take a photo from the parking lot, so this is a "drive-by" shot from his moving car on the street.

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