Battle of Long Island

Battle of Long Island
Part of the American Revolutionary War
The Battle of Long Island, a 21st-century portrait of the battle
Date August 26, 1776 Location Brooklyn, New York 40°39′58″N 73°57′58″W / 40.666°N 73.966°W / 40.666; -73.966 Result British victory[1] The British capture New York City and Long Island from the Continental Army
Belligerents
Great Britain Hesse-Kassel	United States
Commanders and leaders
William Howe Charles Cornwallis Henry Clinton William Erskine James Grant Charles Mawhood Francis Smith	George Washington Israel Putnam William Alexander Thomas Mifflin Henry Knox John Sullivan (POW)
Strength
20,000[2]	10,000[3]
Casualties and losses
64 killed 293 wounded 31 missing[4][5]	2,179 killed, wounded or captured[6]
class=notpageimage| Location within New York City Show map of New York City Battle of Long Island (New York) Show map of New York

The Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn and the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, was an action of the American Revolutionary War fought on August 27, 1776, at and near the western edge of Long Island in present-day Brooklyn. The British defeated the Continental Army and gained access to the strategically important Port of New York, which they held for the rest of the war. It was the first major battle to take place after the United States declared its independence on July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia. It was the largest battle of the Revolutionary War in terms of both troop deployment and combat.

After defeating the British in the siege of Boston on March 17, Continental Army commander-in-chief George Washington relocated his army to defend the port city of New York, located at the southern end of Manhattan Island. Washington understood that the city's harbor would provide an excellent base for the Royal Navy, so he established defenses there and waited for the British to attack. In July, the British, under the command of General William Howe, landed a few miles across the harbor on the sparsely populated Staten Island, where they were reinforced by a fleet of ships in Lower New York Bay over the next month and a half, bringing their total force to 32,000 troops. Washington knew the difficulty in holding the city with the British fleet in control of the entrance to the harbor at the Narrows, and accordingly moved the bulk of his forces to Manhattan, believing that it would be the first target.

On August 21, the British landed on the shores of Gravesend Bay in southwest Kings County, across the Narrows from Staten Island and more than a dozen miles south of the established East River crossings to Manhattan. After five days of waiting, the British attacked the American defenses on the Guan Heights. Unknown to the Americans, however, Howe had brought his main army around their rear and attacked their flank soon after. The Americans panicked, resulting in twenty percent losses through casualties and capture, although a stand by 400 Maryland and Delaware troops prevented greater losses. The remainder of the army retreated to the main defenses on Brooklyn Heights. The British dug in for a siege, but on the night of August 29–30, Washington evacuated the entire army to Manhattan without the loss of supplies or a single life. The Continental Army was driven out of Manhattan entirely after several more defeats and was forced to retreat through New Jersey to Pennsylvania.