On this day 250 years ago in New York, the British landed 15,000 troops at Gravesend Bay and Denyse’s Ferry on Long Island (in modern day Brooklyn). The shore was guarded by 300 Pennsylvania riflemen under the command of Col. Edward Hand but they withdrew and did not oppose the overwhelming firepower of the British ships and soldiers. Instead they burned hay and wheat in farms and sniped at the British as they advanced inland to the village of Flatbush close to the main American lines. The British also occupied the villages of New Utrecht, Gravesend and Flatlands, which are all in Brooklyn now.

At that time the area was almost entirely farmland with a few small villages and today it is almost entirely urban with very few vestiges from the 18th Century, but you can still visit the locations where the British landed. The Continental Army had built a small battery called Narrows Fort at Denyse’s Point, which is the narrowest point of New York Harbor between Staten Island and Long Island.

Fort Hamilton was built on the site of the Narrows Fort in the 19th Century and today remains an active military installation under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Fort Hamilton’s Harbor Defense Museum has an exhibit on the Narrows Fort and the British landing 250 years ago but is only open Monday through Friday and not today. Dyker Beach State Park is the location on Gravesend Bay where the British landed. Today in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, there was reenactment for the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn, which is actually coming up on August 27. Tomorrow and for the next few weeks there will be special exhibits and tours for the Battle of Brooklyn at Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Historical Museum and other locations in Brooklyn.

Sources: American Battlefield Trust, Battle Maps of the American Revolution, Washington, D.C.: Knox Press (2026) at 36; Schecter at 126-28; Boatner III, Mark M., Landmarks of the American Revolution, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books (1992) at ;https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/dyker-beach-park/dailyplant/19164; https://www.harbordefensemuseum.com/; https://visitbrooklyn.nyc/now-in-bklyn/battle-of-brooklyn; https://visitbrooklyn.nyc/now-in-bklyn/battle-of-brooklyn; https://www.bklynlibrary.org/exhibitions/battle-brooklyn-fought; https://www.prospectpark.org/americas-250th-anniversary/