Washington Loses Brooklyn

On August 27, 1776, roughly 20,000 British and Hessian troops under General William Howe outflanked and routed George Washington's much smaller, largely untested army near the western edge of Long Island, in what's now Brooklyn. It was the first major battle since independence had been declared, and it was the largest battle of the entire Revolutionary War. American troops who survived the rout were driven back into fortified lines on Brooklyn Heights, pinned against the East River with the British camped just outside. Two nights later Washington pulled off the retreat that saved the Continental Army: ferrying thousands of soldiers across the water to Manhattan in the dark before the British realized they were gone.