On this day 250 years ago near Flatbush village on Long Island (present day Brooklyn), Connecticut militia under Col. Gold Silliman skirmished with the British. To the east of the British Army, Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Woodhull commanded 100 Long Island militia to guard against British patrols and to herd cattle further east on Long Island out of reach of British foragers. A British officer wrote a few days later that the American militia “kept up a constant kind of dirty firing” using “woods and hedges” for cover. During the three days before the Battle of Long Island (or Brooklyn) the British lost 30 men in skirmishes with the Patriot militia. It is unclear how many Patriots were lost in the skirmishing.

Historians focus on the casualties inflicted in large battles between the Continental Army and the British Army, and in some of those battles, such as the Battle of Brooklyn, the American losses would be horrific compared to very small numbers for ]the British. However, the histories often overlook the impact of constant skirmishing on the British, which cumulatively resulted in significant losses for the British Army in North America a thousand miles away from reinforcements. Although General Washington had difficulty keeping the ranks of the Continental Army filled, the American militia throughout the War would turn out when British troops were in their area. Poorly trained and often poorly armed, the militia usually could not stand their ground in the face of assault by British or Hessian regulars but they were adept at harassing British outposts and scouting and foraging parties.

Source: Kwasny, Mark V., Washington’s Partisan War, Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press (1996) at 66-67

On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, John Adams wrote

 A Sober, conscientious Habit, of electing for the public good alone must be introduced, and every Appearance of Interest, Favour, and Partiality, reprobated, or you will very soon make wise and honest Men wish for Monarchy again, nay you will make them introduce it into America.

. . .

Equality of Representation in the Legislature, is a first Principle of Liberty, and the Moment, the least departure from such Equality takes Place, that Moment an Inroad is made upon Liberty. Yet this essential Principle is disregarded, in many Places, in several of these Republicks. Every County is to have an equal Voice altho some Counties are six times more numerous, and twelve times more wealthy. The Same Iniquity will be established in Congress. R.I. will have an equal Weight with the Mass. The Delaware Government with Pensil­vania and Georgia with Virginia. Thus We are sowing the Seeds of Ignorance Corruption, and Injustice, in the fairest Field of Liberty, that ever appeared upon Earth, even in the first Attempts to cultivate it. You and I have very little to hope or expect for ourselves. But it is a poor Consolation, under the Cares of a whole Life Spent in the Vindication of the Principles of Liberty, to See them violated, in the first formation of Governments, erected by the People themselves on their own Authority, without the poisonous Interposition of Kings or Priests.

Source: “John Adams to Joseph Hawley, 25 August 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-04-02-0233. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 4, February–August 1776, ed. Robert J. Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979, pp. 495–497.]