After the British left Boston in March 1776, George Washington correctly foresaw that they would try to take New York, which would separate the New England colonies from the Southern colonies. Both the British and the Americans saw New York as “a kind of key to the whole continent,” as John Adams observed.[i]
Anticipating a possible attack from Long Island, the Americans stationed troops along the Gowanus Heights, a four mile long, wooded ridge extending east from New York Harbor towards Jamaica. There were four passes through the ridge. The Americans stationed troops at three of them, but left the Jamaica Pass to the east unguarded.
While New Yorkers were preparing defenses to ward off the anticipated British invasion, Col. Joshia Smith of the Suffolk County Militia was traversing Long Island in anticipation of battle. He arrived in Huntington on July 29 to review the local militia in John Wickes’ company and give them their pay of five dollars a man. After riding to Great Neck to scout out locations for a guard, he returned to Suffolk County. On August 10, he received instructions to march newly conscripted troops to the west end of the Island. By the 12th the troops arrived in Huntington, where they spent the night before moving on towards Jamaica.
The militia first went to the Brooklyn ferry and then on August 22, when the British started landing troops at Gravesend Bay, Col. Smith and his troops went to Flatbush, where one of the passes through Gowanus Heights was located. There they exchanged fire with the enemy over the course of three days. On the 27th, the full British attack began. The Suffolk Militia at Flatbush faced an attack by Hessian troops.
To their left, a large force of British troops outflanked the Americans by attacking through the unguarded Jamaica Pass. On the 29th, the Suffolk Militia was ordered to retreat to New York, where they spent the night. The militia then marched to Kingsbridge and into Westchester. On September 1, they secured boats in Mamaroneck to take them back to Long Island, landing at Nathanial Platt’s in Smithtown.[ii]
While Col. Smith and troops were able to retreat; others were captured along with the Liberty Flag. According to Hessian Colonel Heinrich von Heeringen, “The captured flag, which is made of red damask, with the motto, ‘Liberty,’ appeared with sixty men before Rall’s regiment. They had all shouldered their guns upside down, and had their hats under their arms. They fell on their knees and begged piteously for their lives.”[iii]
Meanwhile, on August 24, General Nathaniel Woodhull (Col. Floyd was at the Continental Congress) was instructed by the New York Convention (i.e., Provincial Congress) “to march without delay half the Western Reg. of Suffolk Co. Militia, with 5 days’ provisions into the Western part of Queens: to order out all militia of Queens with the horse, to prevent the stock and provisions in Queens from falling into the enemy’s hands, either by removing or destroying them.”[iv] There were an estimated 100,000 horned cattle and a much larger number of sheep on Long Island.[v] It was determined to be imperative to keep these animals out of the hands of the British.
Woodhull arrived at Jamaica on the 25th. Lt. Col. Gilbert Potter of Huntington and 100 men also arrived in Jamaica. Potter returned to Huntington on the 26th and reported back to Woodhull that he received word that British ships had landed troops between Wading River and Mt. Sinai and began shooting cattle. Major Jeffrey Smith ordered the men who were supposed to go to Queens to assist Woodhull to go to the east instead. Potter said he expected the British ships in Huntington Bay before the morning. He, therefore, was mustering men “to make as good opposition as possible. We must have help here; every thing possible for me shall be done. I think Gen. Washington should be acquainted.” Always one for a memorable conclusion, he ends the letter: “Our women are in great tumult.”[vi]
No large invasion of the eastern part of Long Island took place. It is believed that British General Howe staged this limited incursion to keep the Suffolk Militia away from the main battle in Brooklyn.[vii]
Woodhull reported that he had driven all the cattle south of the hills and east to the border between Kings and Queens Counties, about six miles from the enemy. He stationed guards to keep the cattle from going back and to prevent Tories from communicating with the British troops. However, he didn’t think he could maintain his position without help. The Convention had ordered Colonels Smith and Remsen to assist Woodhull, but they were engaged in the Battle.[viii]
On August 28, a day after the British overwhelmed the Americans, Woodhull reported to the Convention that he had had 90 men and that the number was “daily growing less in number. The people are so alarmed in Suffolk, that they will not any more of them march.”[ix] He had sent 1100 cattle east to the Hempstead Plains the day before and another 300 the day he wrote the letter. He asked for reinforcements. If none were to be forthcoming, he asked what to do with the cattle, kill them or leave them. Woodhull asked that the Convention, of which he had been president, to send two members to advise him as to the proper course of action.
The Convention dispatched John Sloss Hobart and James Townsend. Before the emissaries arrived in Jamaica, Woodhull had been captured. Details of his capture are not entirely clear, but upon being taken, a British officer commanded him to say, “God save the King.” Instead, he said “God save us all.” The enraged officer then hacked Woodhull arm with his sword. Woodhull was taken prisoner and died from those wounds three weeks later.
Hobart and Townsend, who arrived in Jamaica too late to confer with Woodhull, continued on to Huntington, “as the only place where we could have any prospect of making an effectual stand.”[x] At the same time, Major Jeffrey Smith ordered the four militia companies in Brookhaven to march immediately to Platt Carll’s tavern in Huntington (located on the north side of Jericho Turnpike, between Park Avenue and Warner Road). On August 30, three companies arrived at Epenetus Smith’s tavern in Smithtown, with the fourth company on its way. Major Smith went on ahead to Huntington to confer with Hobart and Townsend. The militia were eager to march to the Hempstead Plains to bring off the cattle and take a stand in the woods east of the Plains. When Major Smith returned that night, he called the officers together and said that he thought “it dangerous to march further West, as their forces would not be sufficient to oppose the enemy and he very much gave up the Island.” He advised that “it would not be good policy to incense a cruel enemy by being taken in arms; if they remained quietly at home, they would fare better.” He then resigned his commission and said he would, therefore, give no orders.[xi]
On August 31, Hobart and Townsend reported to the Convention that a number of militia men of Huntington are under arms, “but they complain their officers have left them.” Colonel Floyd was at Congress, Lt. Col Potter was “gone off,” and Major Smith resigned. Second Major Jesse Brush was with them “and begins to be in spirits.”[xii] It seems Lt. Col. Potter had already fled to Connecticut sometime between his report to Gen. Woodhull on August 26 and the arrival in Huntington of Townsend and Hobart four days later.[xiii]
The Militia did not take a stand against the British, who arrived in Huntington on September 1. The Island was lost and would be under British occupation for the next six-and-a-half years.
[i] The American Revolution, An Intimate History, by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2025), page 179
[ii] Mather Refugees, pages 1010-1012
[iii] The Hessians and the other German Auxiliaries of Great Britain in the Revolutionary War, by Edward J. Lowell (NY Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square 1884), page 67
[iv] Onderdonk Suffolk Incidents, page 31
[v] Mather’s Refugees, page 29
[vi] Huntington Town Records, Vol. III, page 7
[vii] Ibid. footnote
[viii] Onderdonk Suffolk Incidents, pages 32-33
[ix] Onderdonk Suffolk Incidents page 34
[x] Huntington Town Records, Vol III, page 9
[xi] Huntington Town Records, Vol III, page 10
[xii] Huntington Town Records, Vol III, page 9
[xiii] Mather’s Refugees, page 173
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