Disaster and Retreat: The Battle for New York
Washington loses New York but saves his army in a nighttime evacuation
Quick facts
- Location
- Long Island, Manhattan, White Plains, New Jersey
- Date
- August-November 1776
- British force
- About 15,000 at Long Island landing
- Result
- New York City lost; Continental Army escapes intact
What happened
On 22 August 1776, roughly 15,000 British and Hessian troops under General William Howe landed at Gravesend Bay on Long Island, and on 27 August they routed Washington's forces at the Battle of Brooklyn (Long Island), flanking the American line on the Heights of Guana and sending troops fleeing. Rather than lose his entire army, Washington organized a nighttime evacuation across the East River to Manhattan under cover of fog, moving roughly 9,000 men without losing a single soldier in the crossing. The British then pushed the Continental Army out of Manhattan and up through White Plains (28 October) before Washington withdrew across New Jersey into Pennsylvania by December, having lost New York City, which the British would hold for the rest of the war.
Why it matters
The campaign was a near-total military failure that cost Washington New York City and thousands of men, but the escape from Long Island preserved the only field army the fledgling United States had. Washington's ability to retreat in good order, rather than being annihilated, is what made the counterstrike at Trenton weeks later possible.
How we know
American Battlefield Trust's narrative of the campaign draws on British and American troop movement records and the accounts of officers present at the Brooklyn engagement and the Manhattan evacuation.
Sources
- American Battlefield Trust. Lost Battlefield: The Disastrous Battle for New York · Primary source (author-declared)battlefields.org · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- American Battlefield Trust. White Plains: Battle Facts and Summary · Reputable sourcebattlefields.org · The domain "battlefields.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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