567 “nothing special”: George Washington to John Hancock, August 21, 1776, in PGW, VI, 97.
568 “this night at farthest”: William Livingston to George Washington, August 21, 1776, in PGW, VI, 99.
569 “We have made no discovery”: George Washington to William Livingston, August 21, 1776, in PGW, VI, 100.
5. Field of Battle
570 “a storm like a hurricane”: Ewald Shewkirk Diary, August 21, 1776, in Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part II, 113.
571 “a most terrible storm”: Philip Vickers Fithian, August 22, 1776, in Philip Vickers Fithian: Journal, 1775–1776, Written on the Virginia-Pennsylvania Frontier and in the Army Around New York, Robert Greenhalgh Albion and Leonidas Dodson, eds. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1934), 214.
572 “the most vehement”: Ambrose Serle, August 21, 1776, in The American Journal of Ambrose Serle, 1776–1778, Edward H. Tatum, Jr., ed. (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1940), 71.
573 “an uncommon”: Ewald Shewkirk Diary, August 21, 1776, in Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part II, 113.
574 “it was surcharged”: Thomas W. Field, Battle of Long Island (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1869), 349.
575 “But there seems hidden”: Ibid., 351.
576 as if nothing unusual: Ibid., 350.
577 precisely eight o’clock: William James Morgan, ed., Naval Documents of the American Revolution, VI (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Navy, 1972), 267.
578 “ships and vessels”: Ambrose Serle, August 22, 1776, in The American Journal of Ambrose Serle, 1776–1778, Edward H. Tatum, Jr., ed. (San Marino, Calif.: The Huntington Library, 1940), 71–73.
579 “regaled themselves”: Ibid.
580 “Our regiment”: Bruce Burgoyne, An Anonymous Hessian Diary, Probably the Diary of Lieutenant Johann Heinrich von Bardeleben of the Hesse-Cassel von Donop Regiment (Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 1998), 54–55.
581 “While we are waiting”: Jabez Fitch, August 22, 1776, in The New York Diary of Lieutenant Jabez Fitch, W. H. W. Sabine, ed. (New York: Colburn & Tegg, 1954), 25.
582 “I have thought fit”: Moses Little to his son, August 22, 1776, in Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part II, 43.
583 “The hour is fast approaching”: George Washington, General Orders, August 23, 1776, in PGW, VI, 109–110.
584 “Remember how your courage”: Ibid.
585 “I have never been afraid”: William Heath to George Washington, August 23, 1776, in PGW, VI, 114.
586 “The greatest vigilance”: Joseph Reed to Esther Reed, August 23, 1776, NYHS.
587 “Scarcely were religious”: Thomas W. Field, Battle of Long Island (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1869), 351.
588 “Carts and horses”: Philip Vickers Fithian, August 25, 1776, in Philip Vickers Fithian: Journal, 1775–1776. Written on the Virginia-Pennsylvania Frontier and in the Army Around New York, Robert Greenhalgh Albion and Leonidas Dodson, eds. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1934), 218.
589 “The distinction between”: George Washington to Israel Putnam, August 25, 1776, in PGW, VI, 126–127.
590 “loose, disorderly”: Ibid.
591 “We expect the fleet”: William Douglas to his wife, August 23, 1776, in Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society), Part II, 68.
592 “General Washington, with a number”: Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part II, 58.
593 “very important”: Joseph Reed to Esther Reed, August 24, 1776, NYHS.
594 “at all hazards”: George Washington to Israel Putnam, August 25, 1776, in PGW, VI, 128.
595 “grand push”: George Washington to John Hancock, August 26, 1776, in PGW, VI, 129.
596 “present appearance”: George Washington to William Heath, August 26, 1776, in PGW, VI, 131.
597 “load of business”: George Washington to Lund Washington, August 26, 1776, in PGW, VI, 137.
598 “I wish most ardently”: George Washington to Lund Washington, August 26, 1776, in PGW, VI, 136.
599 “could compensate [for] the loss”: Ibid., 137.
600 failed most grievously: Sir Henry Clinton, The American Rebellion: Sir Henry Clinton’s Narrative of His Campaigns, 1775–1782, William B. Willcox, ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1954), 20.
601 “speak too freely”: Sir Henry Clinton to William Phillips, December 12, 1775, in The American Rebellion, William B. Willcox, ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1954), xviii n.
602 “Look at the map”: Henry Clinton, September 24, 1776, Henry Clinton Papers, Clements Library.
603 “The position which the rebels”: Sir Henry Clinton, The American Rebellion, William B. Willcox, ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1954), 41.
604 attack would be made: Ibid.
605 British troops: See Richard Holmes, Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of the Horse and Musket (New York: Norton, 2001); J. A. Houlding, Fit for Service: The Training of the British Army, 1715–1795 (Oxford, Eng.: Clarendon Press, 1981); and Sylvia R. Frey, The British Soldier in America (Austin: University of Texas, 1981).
606 “Among the regular troops”: London Chronicle, October 12–15, 1776.
607 “We dragged on”: Eric Robson, ed., Letters from America, 1773–1780 (Manchester, Eng.: Manchester University Press, 1951), 33.
608 “an impudent rebel”: Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part I, 178.
609 “The commander-in-chief”: Sir Henry Clinton, The American Rebellion, William B. Willcox, ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1954), 42.
610 “I found by fair daylight”: Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part II, 235.
611 “A little before day”: Personal Recollections of Captain Enoch Anderson: An Officer of the Delaware Regiments in the Revolutionary War, XVI (Wilmington, Del.: The Historical Society of Delaware, 1896), 21.
612 “a smart engagement”: Moses Little to his son, September 1, 1776, in Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society), Part II, 43.
613 “battle in true English taste”: George F. Scheer and Hugh F. Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats (New York: Da Capo Press, 1957), 165.
614 “Our men stood it amazingly well”: Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part I, 168.
615 “I saw one man”: Personal Recollections of Captain Enoch Anderson, XVI (Wilmington, Del.: Historical Society of Delaware, 1896), 21.
616 “We had a skirmishing”: James Grant to General Harvey, September 2, 1776, James Grant Papers, LOC.
617 “I called to my men”: Letter of Captain William Dancey to his mother, Mrs. Dancey. Dancey, August 30, 1776, Delaware Historical Society.
618 “Their fear of the Hessian troops”: Rodney Atwood, The Hessians: Mercenaries from Hessen: Kissel in the American Revolution (Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 68.
619 “The last I heard”: George F. Scheer and Hugh F. Rankin, eds., Rebels and Redcoats (New York: Da Capo Press, 1957), 167.
620 “They all wished”: Joseph Plumb Martin, A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier (New York: Penguin, 2001), 22.
621 “I saw a lieutenant”: Ibid., 23.
622 “quit yourselves”: George F. Scheer and Hugh F. Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats (New York: Da Capo Press, 1957), 166.
623 “For the batteries began”: Thomas W. Field, Bat
tle of Long Island (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1869), 365.
624 “determined countenance”: Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part I, 168.
625 “make the best”: Thomas W. Field, Battle of Long Island (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1869), 396.
626 “like a wolf”: Charles G. Stevenson and Irene Wilson, The Battle of Long Island (Brooklyn: Brooklyn Bicentennial Commission, 1975), 14.
627 “Good God, what brave fellows”: George F. Scheer and Hugh F. Rankin, eds., Rebels and Redcoats (New York: Da Capo Press, 1957), 168.
628 “It is impossible”: John C. Dann, ed., The Revolution Remembered: Eyewitness Accounts of the War for Independence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), 50.
629 Lord Stirling, finding himself: Thomas W. Field, Battle of Long Island (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1869), 396–397.
630 “should be pushed”: Sir Henry Clinton, The American Rebellion, William B. Willcox, ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1954), 41n.
631 “I had at the moment”: Ibid., 43.
632 “O Doleful!”: Philip Vickers Fithian, August 27, 1776, in Philip Vickers Fithian Journal, Robert Greenhalgh Albion and Leonidas Dodson, eds. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1934), 218.
633 “You will be glad”: James Grant to Edward Harvey, September 2, 1776, James Grant Papers, LOC.
634 “beyond our expectations”: Charles Knowles Bolton, ed., Letters of Hugh Earl Percy from Boston and New York 1774–1776 (Boston: Gregg Press, 1972), 68.
635 behaved with greater spirit: Eric Robson, ed., Letters from America, 1773–1780 (Manchester, Eng.: Manchester University Press, 1951), 33.
636 “They could not run”: Ambrose Serle, August 27, 1776, in The American Journal of Ambrose Serle, 1776–1778, Edward H. Tatum, Jr., ed. (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1940), 79.
637 “The behavior”: K. G. Davies, ed., Documents of the American Revolution, 1770–1783, Colonial Office Series, XII (Dublin: Irish University Press, 1976), 218.
638 “the heap”: Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part II, 34.
639 “the most scurrilous”: Thomas W. Field, Battle of Long Island (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1869), 360.
640 “a great number”: Jabez Fitch, August 27, 1776, in The New York Diary of Lieutenant Jabez Fitch, W. H. W. Sabine, ed. (New York: Colburn & Tegg, 1954), 31.
641 “I sat with him”: Ibid., August 28, 1776, 34.
642 “The Hessians”: Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part I, 186, 206.
643 “was so good”: Jabez Fitch, August 28, 1776, in The New York Diary of Lieutenant Jabez Fitch, W. H. W. Sabine, ed. (New York: Colburn & Tegg, 1954), 34.
644 “They could not have been taken”: Bruce E. Burgoyne, ed., The Hesse-Cassel Mirbach Regiment in the American Revolution (Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 1998), 54.
645 “And the distressed”: Philip Vickers Fithian, August 27, 1776, in Philip Vickers Fithian Journal, Robert Greenhalgh Albion and Leonidas Dodson, eds. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1934), 219.
646 “The faces”: Alexander Graydon, Memoirs of His Own Time, John Stockton Littell, ed. (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1846), 164.
647 “through the goodness”: Joseph Hodgkins to Sarah Hodgkins, August 28, 1776, in Herbert T. Wade and Robert A. Lively, eds., The Glorious Cause: The Adventures of Two Company Officers in Washington’s Army (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1958), 215.
648 “Afternoon, at three”: Philip Vickers Fithian, August 28, 1776, Philip Vickers Fithian Journal, Robert Greenhalgh Albion and Leonidas Dodson, eds. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1934), 220.
649 boom of cannon: Ewald Shewkirk Diary, in Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part II, 114.
650 “hard enough to break”: Joseph Plumb Martin, A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier (New York: Penguin, 2001), 22.
651 “distressed”: George Washington to John Hancock, August 29, 1776, in PGW, VI, 156.
652 “Nor can I ascertain”: George Washington to John Hancock, August 29, 1776, in PGW, VI, 155.
653 “get up”: Thomas W. Field, Battle of Long Island (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1869), 396.
654 “we have many battalions”: Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part I, 218.
655 “ceremony”: Ibid., 219, n. 1.
656 “It was submitted”: Council of War, August 29, 1776, in PGW, VI, 153.
657 “As it was suddenly proposed”: John Morin Scott to John Jay, September 6, 1776, in Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part II, 37.
658 “it became a serious consideration”: Thomas W. Field, Battle of Long Island (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1869), 398.
659 “under arms with packs”: Joseph Hodgkins to Sarah Hodgkins, August 31, 1776, in This Glorious Cause, Herbert T. Wade and Robert A. Lively, eds. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1958), 216.
660 “Several noncupative wills”: Alexander Graydon, Memoirs of His Own Time, John Stockton Littell, ed. (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1846), 166.
661 “The thing was conducted”: Tench Tilghman to his father, September 3, 1776, in Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part II, 85.
662 “flashed upon my mind”: Alexander Graydon, Memoirs of His Own Time, John Stockton Littell, ed. (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1846), 166–167.
663 “To move so large a body”: “Major Tallmadge’s Account of the Battles of Long Island and White Plains,” in Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part II, 78.
664 “And tedious was the operation”: Thomas W. Field, Battle of Long Island (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1869), 519.
665 “We were strictly”: Joseph Plumb Martin, A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier (New York: Penguin, 2001), 26.
666 “As one regiment”: “Major Tallmadge’s Account of the Battles of Long Island and White Plains,” in Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part II, 78.
667 “If the explosion”: Alexander Graydon, Memoirs of His Own Time, John Stockton Littell, ed. (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1846), 167.
668 “is arrayed”: Ibid.
669 Major Alexander Scammell: George F. Scheer and Hugh F. Rankin, eds., Rebels and Redcoats: (New York: Da Capo Press, 1957), 170–171.
670 “without delay”: Alexander Graydon, Memoirs of His Own Time, John Stockton Littell, ed. (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1846), 167.
671 “Good God!”: George F. Scheer and Hugh F. Rankin, eds., Rebels and Redcoats (New York: Da Capo Press, 1957), 171.
672 “trying business”: Alexander Graydon, Memoirs of His Own Time, John Stockton Littell, ed. (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1846), 168.
673 “had the good fortune”: George F. Scheer and Hugh F. Rankin, eds., Rebels and Redcoats (New York: Da Capo Press, 1957), 171.
674 “could scarcely discern”: “Major Tallmadge’s Account of the Battles of Long Island and White Plains,” in Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part II, 78.
675 “It may be supposed”: Alexander Graydon, Memoirs of His Own Time, John Stockton Littell, ed. (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1846), 168.
676 saw Washington on the ferry: “Major Tallmadge�
��s Account of the Battles of Long Island and White Plains,” in Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part II, 79.
677 “And in less than an hour”: Alexander Graydon, Memoirs of His Own Time, John Stockton Littell, ed. (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1846), 168.
678 “In the morning”: “Journals of Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Kemble, 1773–1789,” Collections of the New-York Historical Society (1883), 86.
679 “We cannot yet account”: James Grant to Edward Harvey, September 2, 1776, James Grant Papers, LOC.
680 “They feel severely”: Lord Percy to his father, September 1, 1776, in Charles Knowles Bolton, ed., Letters of Hugh Earl Percy from Boston and New York, 1774–1776 (Boston: Gregg Press, 1972), 69.
681 “This business”: Ibid., 71.
682 “This and the parts adjacent”: Ambrose Serle, September 1, 1776, in The American Journal of Ambrose Serle, 1776–1778, Edward H. Tatum, Jr., ed. (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1940), 86.
683 “behaved very ill”: Ibid., August 30, 1776, 84.
684 “very ably effected”: Sir Henry Clinton, The American Rebellion, William B. Willcox, ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1954), 44.
685 “particularly glorious”: Charles Stedman, The History of the Origin, Progress, and Termination of the American War, I (New York: Arno Press, 1969), 197.
686 “most completely”: Ibid., 198.
687 “Never pursues”: “Journals of Captain John Montresor,” Collections of the New York Historical Society (1881), 310.
688 “flying in such a panic”: Sir Henry Clinton, The American Rebellion, William B. Willcox, ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1954), 43.
689 “judged it prudent”: Ibid., 44.
690 “It was apparent”: Troyer Steele Anderson, The Command of the Howe Brothers During the American Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1936), 134.
691 “fully controverted”: London Morning Chronicle, October 14, 1776.
692 “enliven our countenances”: Edward Gibbon to Dorothea Gibbon, October 24, 1776, in The Letters of Edward Gibbon, II (New York: Macmillan, 1956), 117.
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