near Brooklyn. On the pass of Flatbush, the Americans had flung up a small redoubt, mounted it with artillery, and manned it with a body of troops. Major-general Sullivan continued to command on the heights.

AUG. 26.] In the evening, General Clinton, without beat of drum, marched with the infantry of his division, a party of light horse, and fourteen field pieces, to gain the defile on the Jamaica road. A few hours before day, he surprised an American party stationed here to give the alarm of an approaching enemy, and undiscovered, seized the pass. At day-light he passed the heights, and descended into the plain on the side of Brooklyn. Early in the morning, General de Heister, at Flatbush, and General Grant upon the west coast, opened a cannonade upon the American troops, and began to ascend the hill; but they moved very slowly, as their object was to draw the attention of the American commander from his left, and give General Clinton opportunity to gain the rear of the American troops stationed on the heights. General Putnam, in the apprehension that the serious attack would be made by de Heister and Grant, sent detachments to reinforce General Sullivan and Lord Sterling at the defiles, through which those divisions of the enemy were approaching. When General Clinton had passed the left flank of the Americans, about eight o'clock in the morning of the 27th, de Heister and Grant vigorously ascended the bill; the troops which opposed them, bravely maintained their ground, until they learned their

perilous situation from the British columns, which were gaining their rear.

As soon as the American left discovered the progress of General Clinton, they attempted to return to the camp at Brooklyn; but their flight was stopped by the front of the British column. In the mean time, the Germans pushed forward from Flatbush, and the troops in the American centre, under the immediate command of General Sullivan, having also discovered, that their flank was turned, and that the enemy was gaining their rear, in haste retreated towards Brooklyn. Clinton's columns continuing to advance, intercepted them, they were attacked in front and rear, and alternately driven by the British on the Germans, and by the Germans on the British. Desperate as their situation was, some regiments broke through the enemy's lines, and regained the fortified camp; but most of the detachments upon the American left and centre were either killed or taken prisoners.

The detachment, on the American right, under Lord Sterling, behaved well, and maintained a severe conflict with General Grant for six hours, until the van of General Clinton's division, having crossed the whole island, gained their rear. Lord Sterling perceived his danger, and found that his troops could be saved only by an immediate retreat over a creek near the cove. He gave orders to this purpose; and to facilitate their execution, he, in person, attacked Lord Cornwallis, who, by this time having gained the coast, had posted a small corps in a house, just above the

place where the American troops must pass the creek. The attack was bravely made with four hundred men, who, in the opinion of their com¬ mander, were upon the point of dislodging Cornwallis; but his lordship being reinforced from his own column, and Gen. Grant attacking Lord Sterling in the rear, this brave band was overpowered by numbers, and those who survived were impelled to surrender themselves prisoners of war; but this spirited assault gave opportunity for a large proportion of the detachment to escape.

The loss of the Americans on this occasion, for the number engaged, was great; General Washington stated it at a thousand men; but his returns probably included only the regular regiments. General Howe, in an official letter, made the prisoners to amount to one thousand and ninetyseven. Among these were Major-general Sulliyan, and Brigadier-generals Sterling and Woodhul. The amount of the killed was never with precision ascertained. Numbers were supposed to have been drowned in the creek, and some to have perished in the mud on the marsh. The British loss acknowledged by General Howe, was twenty-one officers, and three hundred and fortysix privates killed, wounded, and taken.

General Washington passed over to Brooklyn in the heat of the action; but unable to rescue his men from their perilous situation, was constrained to be the inactive spectator of the slaughter of his best troops.

At the close of the day, the British approached in front of the American works, and it has been

said, that the troops, in their ardour, exhibited a strong inclination to storm the lines; but General Howe, remembering Bunker Hill, prudently restrained them from the assault.

Determining to carry the American works by regular approaches, the British commander broke ground, on the night of the 28th, within six hundred yards of a redoubt.

His

General Washington was fully sensible of the danger that awaited him. The success of the enemy by regular approaches was certain. troops were without tents, and had already suffered extremely by heavy rains. The movements of the British fleet indicated an intention to force a passage into the East river, and cut off the retreat of the troops to the city. Should they accomplish this, the situation of the army on Long Island would be desperate. An immediate retreat to the city was therefore thought expedient. The measure was happily accomplished, on the night of the 29th, with all the stores, and military apparatus, except a few pieces of heavy artillery, which the softness of the ground rendered it impossible to move.

This important retreat was made with so much silence and address, that the enemy did not perceive it, although so near, that the noise of their intrenching tools was distinctly heard by the Americans. A heavy fog hung over Long Island until late in the morning of the 30th, which hid the movements of the American army from General Howe. When it cleared, the rear guard was seen crossing East river, out of reach of the British

fire. The General, in person, inspected the details of this critical retreat; and for the fortyeight hours which preceded its completion, in his own language, he was" hardly off his horse, and never closed his eyes." He did not leave the

island before the covering the lines.

party marched from

The attempt to defend Long Island has, by many, been considered as an error in the military operations of the American General. But before his judgment, in this instance, is condemned, the reasons which led to it ought to be weighed. Its possession was highly important to either army; its situation rendered its defence, in a good degree, probable; the range of hills was favourable to the obstruction of an invading enemy: and a fortified camp in the rear, opening a comunication with the city, and supported by batteries on Governor's Island, and the East river, rendered a retreat practicable, when circumstances should make it necessary. There was then a fair prospect of defending the island; at least of detaining the enemy so long in the effort to gain possession of it, as to waste the campaign in the contention. The disastrous consequences of this measure, are not to be attributed to any defect in the original plan, but to the neglect of the comanding officer on the island in guarding the pass on the road from Jamaica to Bedford. Unfortunately this officer was changed at the time when hostilities were about to commence; and the General, who directed the disposition of the troops on the day of the action, was imperfectly acquainted with