268 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

on his right in the direction of Gowanus, that he quite neglected to send out any fresh patrols towards Jamaica, although he had foretold that the real danger would come from that quarter.1

Fatal mistake! The battle was lost before it had been began.

All these movements had not been unobserved by Washington, who, although receiving hourly reports from Putnam's camp, could not rest satisfied without a personal inspection of the state of affairs. All the previous day (26th) he had spent on Long Island, visiting the redoubts and guard-posts, reconnoitring the enemy, and thoroughly acquainting himself with the relative position of the two armies. The movements which he had observed towards evening, on the centre and right of the British force, were ominous of an immediate conflict. He, too, shared the general apprehension that the city of New York would be attacked by the enemy’s fleet; and the Southern brigades of the troops on Long Island, although the choicest, best equipped and officered in the army, had as yet never engaged in battle. What wonder, then, that his mind, as he returned to New York that evening, was filled with anxious thoughts and apprehensions of the morrow? At no period in his previous career had the responsibilities of his position and the welfare of his beloved country weighed so heavily upon him as on the eve of what was to be the first pitched battle of the Revolution, and upon the event of which the destiny of America seemed to be staked. Yet his heart was buoyed up by a firm reliance on Him who doeth all things well—faith was triumphant o’er his fears, and after supping cheerfully with his military staff, he calmly remarked, as he withdrew at an early hour to his chamber, “The same Providence that rules to-day will rule to-morrow, gentlemen. Good-night.”

Let us now return to the operations of the left wing and centre of the British army. Almost simultaneously with the march of the right wing on the previous evening, the left, under Gen. Grant, had advanced towards Brooklyn, partly by the Coast Road,2 and partly by

1 See his letter to Washington.

2 This was not the present road along the verge of the high bank from Yellow Hook to Gowanus; but a road which ran along the slopes further inland, nearly on the line of present Third avenue. (See the Battle Map illustrating this chapter.)