How the Battle of Brooklyn Saved the American Revolution

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. Well, this week was a special week. You know, it’s 250th year anniversary of our country. And today, this week, was the Battle of Brooklyn. With us today is Patrick O’Donnell. He’s a historian, a public speaker, a best-selling author, and he’s on with us this Sunday morning to talk about the Battle of Brooklyn and how crucial it was. Well,

0:29 tell us, Patrick, give us your analysis of how crucial the Battle of Brooklyn was.

0:37 Speaker 2 John, this is one of the most important battles in American history that nobody has ever heard of. And why is it important? It’s because the British could have conducted a crushing victory by destroying Washington’s army, potentially capturing Washington and ending the Revolutionary War that week, 250 years ago.

0:59 And it’s a series of engagements, small unit actions, as well as an American Dunkirk that takes place that will save the revolution and allow the United States to continue to grow and foster and live on. And it was that week, though, 250 years ago, that it almost all ended.

1:24 Speaker 1 Understood. And what happened? I want people to understand, because a lot of our listeners, maybe 10% of them, 20% of them, or overall country, are New Yorkers. So they’re interested about what happened. Absolutely, John.

1:44 Speaker 2 This is a situation that’s over a year after the battles of Lexington and Concord and the siege of Boston where the British evacuate. They then come back. The empire strikes back with the largest force ever assembled to conquer North America and to crush the rebellion. They bring about most of the Royal Navy, which is the most powerful

2:07 navy of the world at the time, as well as most of their, two-thirds of their army. They never have enough, so they bring in Hessian regulars from Germany that are brought in as allies, and they’re there to crush Germany.

2:21 the nascent United States in Washington. And Washington has the unenviable job of somehow defending New York City, which is mission impossible because it’s surrounded by water, and the Royal Navy can land anywhere that they want. So he divides his army up into two parts. He defends Manhattan and then also Long Island. And it’s on August 22nd that

2:42 the British land at Long Island. Tens of thousands of troops, over 20,000 strong troops, And Washington has roughly 10,000 men on Long Island. And the largest battle up until that point of the Revolutionary War begins, interestingly enough, in a watermelon patch on August 26th, where British scouts are trying to find, they’re basically probing American lines, and they come

3:09 across the watermelon patch, which would be today, it was known as the Red Lion Inn, but it was the gates of Greenwood Cemetery in today’s in the current-day geography, and it’s there that they are repelled by the men in my next book, which is called Revolutionary Cypress, which is on the Revolutionary Riflemen, and they repel those scouts.

3:34 But it’s the next day that the crown comes on strong, and most of the American forces are arrayed on the heights of Gowanus, which is today’s Greenwood Cemetery. And the British have this incredibly novel flanking maneuver where they go through the Jamaica Pass, which is only guarded that night by five men on horseback, which are quickly captured. And 10,000

3:58 men go through Jamaica Pass, and they are conducting a massive flanking maneuver and surround effectively the men on the heights of Gowanus.

4:07 Speaker 1 And it’s here.

4:09 Speaker 2 that one of the greatest small unit actions in American history take place were 400 Marylanders. The Washingtons, known as Washington’s Immorals, I wrote a best-selling book on it, five companies of men would make a suicidal bayonet charge against a position occupied by Cornwallis. They were some of the only men in the Continental Army at the time that

4:31 had bayonets, and they risked their lives. Their motto was men of honor, family, and fortune. They were some of the richest families from Baltimore and Maryland, and they conducted a series of rearguard actions, these bayonet charges, that allowed the bulk of the American Army to escape across the Mill Pond and Gowanus Creek and into the heights of

4:55 Brooklyn at the time. And it.

5:00 Speaker 2 Was an hour more precious in our history than any other as a contemporary historian would say. Their sacrifice... prevented the major wings of the British and Hessian armies from coming together, converging, and smashing Washington’s entire force, which would have thereby ended the entire Revolutionary War.

5:20 Speaker 1 Understood. And that made the difference.

5:24 Speaker 2 It makes all the difference. It’s a situation where individuals and their agency could change the course of time. It’s a small unit action situation. And it’s not the end of the– Washington is not out of the woods yet, though.

5:40 And he has to basically endure two days of a siege against the combined British and Hessian armies. And there’s the Royal Navy, which is parked in New York Harbor and about to go up the East River. And here he conducts the greatest evacuation in military history. It’s the American Dunkirk and the men from Marblehead. I wrote a

6:00 book called The Indispensables. They put together all the small boats, and they ferry across the East River, which is a raging torrent, because there’s a massive storm that takes place for two days. And somehow, miraculously, they get across, and there’s a fog that comes in in the morning that screens their movement at exactly the right time at dawn,

6:23 and they’re able to get the army off. without losing most of their men. It’s an incredible story.

6:29 Speaker 1 Patrick O’Donnell, thank you for coming on this Sunday morning to tell us about the Battle of Brooklyn, something that was very important for our 250th year anniversary, and let’s catch up again real soon.

6:44 Speaker 2 Absolutely, John. It was an honor and a privilege to be back on your show.