On this day 250 years ago in New York, the Continental Army had completed its evacuation of Long Island. The evacuation had begun at 7:00 pm the previous evening and had taken all night. The evacuation was aided by weather producing wind that prevented the British Navy from sailing into the East River to intercept the American boats and thick fog that obscured the Americans as they completed the evacuation after dawn. Just before dawn the rearguard commanded by Brigadier General Thomas Mifflin finally abandoned the extensive fortifications on Brooklyn Heights to head to the boats and be ferried across the East River from Brooklyn by the mariners of the Marblehead Regiment. Generals Mifflin and Washington were in the last boats to depart Long Island. The final evacuation of two American regiments posted on Governors Island was complete by 7:00 am. Although a junior British officer and a Loyalist had noticed in the early morning hours that the Americans were evacuating, their intelligence was not passed along to the British commanders and the British Army occupied the fortifications on Brooklyn Heights only after all the Americans were gone. They reached the Brooklyn ferry landing in time to fire only a few shots at the last departing boats crossing the river.

Remarkably, the Continental Army made a complete escape from Brooklyn carrying off all its men, weapons and supplies save three stragglers in one boat captured by the British, a few heavy cannon that got stuck in the mud and had to be spiked, and some uncooperative cattle that could not be herded onto boats. Four men were wounded by British gunfire in the final boats departing for Manhattan. General Washington’s command three days earlier at the Battle on Gowanus Heights was sorely lacking but he organized and commanded a masterful retreat with the able assistance of the Marblehead Regiment and other mariners from Massachusetts. Unfortunately for the Americans, the next month would bring more disaster for the Continental Army.

Sources: Schecter at 161-67; O’Donnell, Indispensables at 238-45

You can visit the site where the Marblehead Regiment embarked the Continental Army for their escape to Manhattan at the Fulton Ferry Landing in Brooklyn. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=258800; https://theoldstonehouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Battle-Brooklyn-walking-tour.pdf (site 20)

On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, Tadeusz Kosciuszko of Poland presented his credentials to the Continental Congress and volunteered to serve in the Continental Army.

Sources: Journals of the Continental Congress Vol. V at p. 719 accessed at https://archive.org/details/us_congress_continental/lljc005/page/719/mode/2up; https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/andrzej-tadeusz-bonawentura-kosciuszko; https://thelibertytrail.org/history/biographies/tadeusz-kosciuszko; https://home.nps.gov/thko/learn/historyculture/kosciuszkobio.htm