Less than two months after the July 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence, General George Washington’s Continental Army was in a fight for its life. The Patriots had failed to check a British amphibious attack on Long Island, and following a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Brooklyn, some 9,000 Americans were pinned against the East River. While British General Sir William Howe settled in for a siege, Washington ordered his men to round up all the flat-bottomed boats they could find. As drenching rains fell on the night of August 29, he used his hastily assembled flotilla to silently ferry unit after unit across the river to the safety of Manhattan. The regiment of Massachusetts fishermen that manned the boats used rags to muffle the sound of their oars, and campfires were left burning to deceive the British.
Many Continentals had still yet to be evacuated from Brooklyn by sunrise, but luckily for Washington, a dense fog rolled in and masked the final stages of the withdrawal. By the time the British finally realized what was happening, all 9,000 colonists had slipped away along with most of their equipment and artillery. “In the history of warfare I do not recollect a more fortunate retreat,” Continental officer Benjamin Tallmadge later wrote.
