On this day in New York · November 25, 1783
The Last Redcoats Leave New York
After seven years of occupation, the British finally sailed out of the harbor, but not before someone greased the flagpole at the Battery for one last insult.
The facts
- Date
- November 25, 1783
- Who marched in
- General George Washington and Governor George Clinton, retaking Fort Washington before proceeding down Broadway to the Battery
- Who left
- British commander Sir Guy Carleton, who oversaw the evacuation of roughly 29,000 Loyalist refugees
- Where it snagged
- Fort George on the Battery, where the British flag had been nailed to a greased flagpole
On November 25, 1783, the final British troops sailed out of New York harbor, closing out seven years of wartime occupation that began when the city fell in 1776. General George Washington and Governor George Clinton rode down from the north, retook Fort Washington, and led the Continental Army down Broadway to the Battery. British commander Sir Guy Carleton had spent months organizing the evacuation of roughly 29,000 Loyalists who had no interest in sticking around under the new government. The last snag came at Fort George, where someone had nailed the British flag to a freshly greased pole. An army veteran named John Van Arsdale had to hammer cleats into the wood and climb it by hand to get the American flag up before the British fleet cleared the harbor.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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was allegedly able to ascend the pole, remove the flag, and replace it with the Stars and Stripes before the British fleet had completely sailed out of sight
Wikipedia's account of army veteran John Van Arsdale's climb up the greased flagpole at Fort George, November 25, 1783
Source: Wikipedia -
May the Remembrance of THIS DAY be a Lesson to Princes.
the last of thirteen toasts drunk at Governor Clinton's dinner for Washington at Fraunces Tavern that evening, as recorded in Rivington's Gazette
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
For over a century New Yorkers threw Evacuation Day a real party, complete with a flag raised twice a year in its honor, until Thanksgiving swallowed the date and World War One made celebrating a British defeat awkward for a new ally. It is also why the city, not Philadelphia or Boston, got to watch the war actually end.
Sources
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