HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 285

imprisoning that portion of the American army in New York, and separating it from that on Long Island.

The deliberations of this council were brief, and their decision unanimous in favor of an evacuation of Long Island and a retreat to New York on that very night.1 To effect the withdrawal of some nine thousand men, with their arms and munitions of war, and that, too, in face of an enemy at work in their trenches, so near that the sound of their pickaxes and spades could be distinctly heard,—to march them a considerable distance to the river, and to transport them across its strong, broad current,—necessitated the greatest skill and secrecy. Orders were immediately issued to Colonel Glover to collect and man with his regiment of hardy mariners all the boats of every kind which could be found, and to be in readiness by midnight for the embarkation, which was to be superintended by General McDougal. In order to have the army in proper marching condition, without divulging the plan of retreat, the officers were directed to hold their men in readiness for an attack upon the enemy's lines that night. The order excited general surprise, but by eight o’clock the army was ready for movement. That the enemy’s suspicions might not be excited, General Mifflin was to remain within the lines, and within 250 yards of the British advanced works, with Colonel Hand’s rifle-corps and the battered remnants of the Delaware and Maryland regiments, who, with barely a respite from the terrible battle of the 27th, had now cheerfully consented to cover the retreat of their fresher but less experienced companions in arms.2 By nine o’clock the ebb-tide,

Dutch church in Fulton street, as has been erroneously stated by Loaning and Onderdonk, which was merely the alarm-post of the American army) that the council of war was held which determined upon the retreat, and from which the orders for that movement were promulgated. This is on the authority of Colonel Fish, the father of Governor Hamilton Fish, and one of Washington’s military family, who, in 1824, during Lafayette’s visit to Brooklyn, called the attention of the distinguished visitor to the fact, and designated the very positions in the room occupied by the members of that council.

1 Proceedings of a Council of War held at Headquarters at Brooklyn; August 29th, 1776. (Onderdonk, see. 161; Force’s American Archives, fifth series, i. 1246.) This council was composed of His Excellency General Washington; Major-Generals Putnam and Spencer; Brigadier-Generals Mifflin, McDougal, Parsons, Scott, Wadsworth, and Fellow.

2 Colonel Smallwood’s letter, and Colonel Hazlet's letter to Thomas Rodney. Onderdonk, sec. 809.