It is January 11th. Welcome to Episode 11 of History in a Year. Today, the celebration ends. While the ink is still drying on the Declaration of Independence, the largest armada in history descends on New York Harbor. We witness the disaster of the Battle of Long Island, the sacrifice of the “Maryland 400,” and the miraculous fog that allowed George Washington to pull off the greatest escape in military history.
STEPHEN: Welcome to History in a Year: America’s First 250 Years.
LEAH: Join us every single day as we journey from the Revolution of 1776 to the 250th anniversary of the United States.
STEPHEN: You can find every episode and join the discussion at PointedWords.com. I’m Stephen.
LEAH: And I’m Leah.
STEPHEN: It is January 11th. Welcome to Episode 11. Yesterday, we watched the British fleet sail away from Boston. Washington had won the first round. But as he stood on the docks, he predicted: “They will be back.”
LEAH: He knew exactly where they were going: New York City. Control New York, and you control the Hudson River. Control the Hudson, and you split the colonies in half—isolating New England from the South. It was the strategic kill-shot.
STEPHEN: So Washington marched his army south. He arrived in New York in April 1776 and started digging. But defending New York is a nightmare. It’s an archipelago of islands—Manhattan, Long Island, Staten Island—surrounded by deep water. Perfect for a navy. Terrible for an army without ships.
LEAH: On June 29, 1776, the lookouts on Staten Island saw a sail on the horizon. Then another. Then a forest of masts.
STEPHEN: General William Howe had returned. And he didn’t come alone. Over the next few weeks, the harbor filled with over 400 ships. It was the largest expeditionary force Great Britain had ever assembled.
LEAH: 32,000 well-trained soldiers. 10,000 sailors. And thousands of those terrifying Hessian mercenaries we mentioned in Episode 1.
STEPHEN: Washington had about 19,000 men. Most of them were sick, poorly equipped, and had never fought in a real battle. They were staring at a force twice their size.
LEAH: But amidst this terror, there was a moment of hope. On July 9, 1776, a messenger arrived from Philadelphia carrying a document.
STEPHEN: The Declaration of Independence. Washington ordered the army to assemble on the commons (where City Hall is today). He had the Declaration read aloud to the troops.
LEAH: “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” It was the first time these soldiers understood exactly what they were fighting for. Not just for taxes, but for a new nation.
STEPHEN: The troops went wild. A mob of soldiers and civilians ran down to Bowling Green, where there was a massive lead statue of King George III on a horse. They toppled it.
LEAH: They chopped the King’s head off and put it on a spike outside a tavern. The rest of the lead statue was melted down. They turned the King into 42,000 musket balls to fire back at his own troops.
STEPHEN: But enthusiasm doesn’t win battles. Tactics do. And on August 22nd, the British finally moved. They landed 15,000 men on Long Island (in modern-day Brooklyn).
LEAH: Washington had split his forces. He had some men in Manhattan and some in Brooklyn, defending the Heights. He expected a frontal assault, just like Bunker Hill.
STEPHEN: But General Howe had learned his lesson. He wasn’t going to charge up a hill again. He found a flaw in Washington’s defense.
LEAH: There was a ridge of hills protecting the American position. There were three main roads through the hills, and the Americans guarded them heavily. But there was a fourth road—the “Jamaica Pass”—far to the east.
STEPHEN: It was an obscure, unguarded cattle path. Washington’s officers missed it. On the night of August 26th, Howe marched 10,000 men silently through that pass.
LEAH: When the sun rose on August 27th, the Americans were fighting the British in front of them, thinking it was a standard battle. Suddenly, they heard cannons firing behind them.
STEPHEN: They were surrounded. It was a slaughter. The British and Hessians collapsed the American lines like a house of cards. The Americans panicked. Men were running through the swamps, being hunted down by Hessian bayonets.
LEAH: But amidst the rout, there was one moment of incredible heroism. The “Maryland 400.”
STEPHEN: A regiment of soldiers from Maryland, led by Major Mordecai Gist, saw that the rest of the army was trapped. They decided to buy time.
LEAH: They charged the British line—a force ten times their size. They were stationed at the “Old Stone House.” They attacked, were pushed back, and attacked again. Six times.
STEPHEN: Washington watched from a nearby hill, wringing his hands and crying out, “Good God! What brave fellows I must this day lose!”
LEAH: 256 of the Marylanders were killed. But their sacrifice worked. It bought enough time for the rest of the army to retreat behind the fortifications of Brooklyn Heights.
STEPHEN: But now, Washington was in a box. He had 9,000 men trapped on Brooklyn Heights. The British army was in front of him. The East River was behind him.
LEAH: General Howe halted his troops. He didn’t order a final assault. He remembered the carnage of Bunker Hill and decided to play it safe. He would lay siege. He began digging trenches. He knew he had Washington trapped.
STEPHEN: Howe’s plan was simple: Wait for the British fleet to sail up the East River. Once the ships were in the river, they would cut off Washington’s escape. The entire American army would be captured, and the war would be over.
LEAH: Washington was cornered. It was raining. His men were hungry, wet, and demoralized. He faced a choice: Surrender, fight and die, or try the impossible.
STEPHEN: He chose the impossible. He decided to evacuate the entire army across the East River to Manhattan. At night. Under the nose of the enemy.
LEAH: He needed boats. He sent word to Colonel John Glover.
STEPHEN:
LEAH: Glover was the leader of the “Marblehead Regiment.” These weren’t farmers; they were fishermen from Massachusetts. Tough, salty men who knew how to handle boats in any weather.
STEPHEN: On the night of August 29th, Glover’s men gathered every sloop, sailboat, and canoe they could find. They began ferrying the army across the river.
LEAH: The river is a mile wide. The current is treacherous. And they had to do it in total silence. They wrapped the oars in cloth. They ordered the men not to speak or cough.
STEPHEN: But luck was against them. At first, the wind was blowing the wrong way, making it impossible to use sails. They had to row against the wind. Then, the tide turned against them.
LEAH: By morning, a large portion of the army was still on Long Island. As the sun began to rise, the British lookouts were about to see the boats. It was going to be a massacre on the water.
STEPHEN: And then, the miracle happened.
LEAH: A dense, heavy fog rolled in. It was so thick you couldn’t see six feet in front of you.
STEPHEN: This wasn’t normal morning mist. It was a “pea soup” fog that settled specifically over the river and the Brooklyn side, while—according to witnesses—the Manhattan side remained clear.
LEAH: Under the cover of this “providential fog,” Glover’s men kept rowing. They ferried the last of the troops, the cannons, and the horses.
STEPHEN: The last man to step into the last boat was George Washington.
LEAH: When the fog lifted around 7:00 AM, the British marched into the American lines expecting a fight. They found… nothing. Just empty trenches and campfire ashes.
STEPHEN: General Howe was stunned. Washington had slipped through his fingers. It was a masterstroke of logistics and luck.
LEAH: Historically, the Battle of Long Island was a crushing defeat. Washington was outgeneraled and outflanked. He lost New York City—the British would occupy it for the rest of the war.
STEPHEN: But the evacuation was a victory of survival. If Washington had been captured that day, the United States would have died in its cradle.
LEAH: Washington lived to fight another day. But “fighting” wasn’t really what he did for the next few months. It was mostly running.
STEPHEN: The British chased him out of Manhattan, across the Hudson, and into New Jersey. The American army was disintegrating. Soldiers were deserting in droves.
LEAH: By the winter of 1776, Washington was down to a few thousand freezing men. The British assumed the war was practically over. They went into winter quarters, waiting for spring to finish off the rebels.
STEPHEN: Thomas Paine—who was marching with the army—sat by a campfire and wrote a new pamphlet. He called it The American Crisis.
LEAH: “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
STEPHEN: Join us tomorrow for Episode 12. The darkest hour of the war. Washington needs a victory, or the revolution dies on New Year’s Eve. We are going to cross the Delaware River on Christmas night and hunt some Hessians.
LEAH: I’m Leah.
STEPHEN: And I’m Stephen.
STEPHEN: You can find every episode at PointedWords.com. And this… is our story.