MUSEUM
New York Historical Society
"The Battle of Brooklyn"
Carolyn and I have read multiple history books regarding New York City and particularly the Revolutionary War. We are surrounded by history with sites and geography that exists to this day.
This exhibit showing the Battle of Brooklyn was a treat since so many of the documents and artifacts were pulled together for this exhibit.
While there we also saw many of the original documents of and about Alexander Hamilton. A treat!
"On August 27, 1776, on the marshy fields of Gowanus and Red Hook, George Washington and his rag-tag army of untrained soldiers fought the British Army, one of the most powerful military forces in the world. The rebels were ingloriously defeated. The first major armed campaign for the colonies after declaring independence from Great Britain, the Battle of Brooklyn stands as the largest single battle of the Revolutionary War, and one that would loom large in George Washington’s consciousness
Yet because it is a story of defeat and retreat, it does not occupy the same place in American history as the narratives of the more famous battles of Bunker Hill, Saratoga, or Yorktown. Through 90 objects and documents, including Hugh Gaine’s printing of the Declaration of Independence, a camp bed used by George Washington during the war, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, and a rare hunting shirt that became the first ‘uniform’ of the Continental Army, The Battle of Brooklyn presents the dramatic story of the near-disaster that both threatened and abetted the outcome of the war for American independence."
“The Battle of Brooklyn was a major part of American history that happened right here in our backyards, but is often overlooked in stories of the founding of our nation,” said Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New-York Historical Society. “On the surface, it could be seen as a moment of defeat, but this exhibition will show the resilience and strength of New Yorkers, who fought bravely and endured occupation of their city before finally becoming independent and free citizens.”
“The Battle of Brooklyn” will capture the volatile time when the Continental Congress and the American colonists turned ideas into action and broke their ties with Britain. The year 1776 opened with the publication of Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense,” sparking the call for separation across the colonies; it closed with the publication of his “American Crisis,” marking the sense of despair among supporters of independence. With more than 100 objects documenting major political and military figures, the dynamic debates over independence and the artifacts of combat and British occupation, the exhibition will convey the atmosphere of New York City as it faced invasion by a British force that exceeded its own population. “The Battle of Brooklyn” is curated by the New-York Historical Society’s Valerie Paley, vice president, chief historian, dean of scholarly programs and director for the Center for Women's History; and Jean Ashton, senior director of resources and programs, and library director emerita.
New-York Historical Society to explore Battle of Brooklyn
This fall, to commemorate the 240th anniversary of the largest single battle of the American Revolution, the New-York Historical Society will present “The Battle of Brooklyn,” on view from Sept. 23, 2016 to Jan. 8, 2017. A story of American defeat in the first major armed campaign after the Declaration of Independence, the Battle of Brooklyn took place in August 1776, but does not occupy the same place in history as the more victorious engagements at Bunker Hill or Yorktown. Also known as the Battle of Long Island, the event is seen by some as the biggest missed opportunity for Britain to end the American rebellion and marks a pivotal moment when the fight for American independence teetered on the edge of failure.“The Battle of Brooklyn was a major part of American history that happened right here in our backyards, but is often overlooked in stories of the founding of our nation,” said Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New-York Historical Society. “On the surface, it could be seen as a moment of defeat, but this exhibition will show the resilience and strength of New Yorkers, who fought bravely and endured occupation of their city before finally becoming independent and free citizens.”
“The Battle of Brooklyn” will capture the volatile time when the Continental Congress and the American colonists turned ideas into action and broke their ties with Britain. The year 1776 opened with the publication of Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense,” sparking the call for separation across the colonies; it closed with the publication of his “American Crisis,” marking the sense of despair among supporters of independence. With more than 100 objects documenting major political and military figures, the dynamic debates over independence and the artifacts of combat and British occupation, the exhibition will convey the atmosphere of New York City as it faced invasion by a British force that exceeded its own population. “The Battle of Brooklyn” is curated by the New-York Historical Society’s Valerie Paley, vice president, chief historian, dean of scholarly programs and director for the Center for Women's History; and Jean Ashton, senior director of resources and programs, and library director emerita.
‘The Battle of Brooklyn’ Review: Victory Through Retreat
If the battle had gone differently, the Revolution would have ended then and there
By
Mark Yost •Oct. 3, 2016 6:02 p.m. ET
Ask most Americans about the Battle of Brooklyn and you’ll likely get a blank stare. The New-York Historical Society is trying to change that, marking the 240th anniversary with a new exhibit that uses artifacts, letters, diaries, maps, works of art and dioramas to make the point that it was perhaps the most important military engagement of the American Revolutionary War.
Sometimes known as the Battle of Long Island, most of the fighting took place Aug. 26-29, 1776, less than two months after the Continental Congress declared independence from Britain. It was not only the first major battle of the war, but also the largest. The exact numbers are lost to history, but it pitted some 34,000 British troops, including 8,000 Hessian mercenaries and more than 400 British ships, against 9,000 Continental Army soldiers under Gen. George Washington. While it could just as easily be called “the Retreat of Brooklyn,” the battle demonstrated Washington’s superior tactical sense in the way he escaped a numerically superior, more well-trained force that had him nearly surrounded. If he had failed, the rebellion would have ended there.
The more than 100 objects smartly chosen by curators Valerie Paley and Jean Ashton are displayed chronologically in a half-dozen small galleries. Early on, visitors see a wall-size map of the 13 colonies, with New York at the center, and a prescient pull quote from a Jan. 6, 1776, letter from John Adams to Washington, saying that New York is “Key to the whole Continent. . . . No effort to Secure it ought to be omitted.” Nearby is the letter itself, on loan from the Library of Congress.
Visitors next get a sense of the mood in New York, a city of 25,000 people sharply divided between Revolutionaries and Loyalists in the summer of 1776. “From the Battery at the foot of Manhattan,” one placard notes, “New Yorkers could see hundreds of ship masts—a terrifying sight to civilians and soldiers.”
Washington issued a broadside, on display here, telling residents to expect the worst and leave the city if they could. On July 6, shortly after the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence, an angry mob went to Bowling Green, a public square in lower Manhattan, and pulled down a gilded lead statue of George III on horseback. Some of the lead, legend has it, was melted down to make musket balls. The event is depicted in an 1850s oil painting by Johannes Adam Simon Oertel, part of the museum’s permanent collection.
The most impressive pre-battle artifact is a small pocket almanac kept by an unknown citizen. On the page for July 4 he noted that independence had been declared and then wrote “this fatal day, rivers of blood will flow.”
They wouldn’t flow until late August, when British troops landed in Gravesend and were given a hero’s welcome by local Loyalists, who would guide them through passes to flank Washington. But before visitors learn the details of the battle, they’re shown period weapons and uniforms, as well as the actual canvas cot that Washington slept on.
The battle itself is explained through a knee-high, tabletop video display, showing a map of Brooklyn and both sides’ troop movements over the three days of fighting. When the British get to the Vechte farmhouse, today called the Old Stone House and reconstructed in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, the map disappears and we see under clear glass a scale model of the farmhouse, with miniature British and American troops amassed around it. It’s a clever use of modern technology to show a key point in the battle. If not for the valiant stand of “the Maryland 400” the bulk of Washington’s force might not have been able to escape to Brooklyn Heights. From there, he wisely decided to retreat to Manhattan under the cover of darkness and fog on the night of Aug. 29. The exhibit notes that Washington’s troops were ferried to safety by Gen. John Glover and his Marbleheaders, a group of racially integrated fishermen from Massachusetts. When the fog lifted on the morning of Aug. 30, the Continental Army was gone. Some 2,000 American men were killed, wounded or captured, while the British casualties and prisoners numbered just under 400.
The British subsequently moved into New York and occupied it for the next seven years. The city was burned—perhaps by Nathan Hale, who was hanged for treason—a calamity seen here in an engraving of Franz Xaver Habermann’s depiction of the blaze. Washington had clearly been defeated, but the Continental Army survived to more famously cross the Delaware and surprise those same British troops some four months later on Christmas Eve. That makes the Battle of Brooklyn a story well worth remembering, and one that is told well here.
Mark Yost •Oct. 3, 2016 6:02 p.m. ET
Ask most Americans about the Battle of Brooklyn and you’ll likely get a blank stare. The New-York Historical Society is trying to change that, marking the 240th anniversary with a new exhibit that uses artifacts, letters, diaries, maps, works of art and dioramas to make the point that it was perhaps the most important military engagement of the American Revolutionary War.
Sometimes known as the Battle of Long Island, most of the fighting took place Aug. 26-29, 1776, less than two months after the Continental Congress declared independence from Britain. It was not only the first major battle of the war, but also the largest. The exact numbers are lost to history, but it pitted some 34,000 British troops, including 8,000 Hessian mercenaries and more than 400 British ships, against 9,000 Continental Army soldiers under Gen. George Washington. While it could just as easily be called “the Retreat of Brooklyn,” the battle demonstrated Washington’s superior tactical sense in the way he escaped a numerically superior, more well-trained force that had him nearly surrounded. If he had failed, the rebellion would have ended there.
The more than 100 objects smartly chosen by curators Valerie Paley and Jean Ashton are displayed chronologically in a half-dozen small galleries. Early on, visitors see a wall-size map of the 13 colonies, with New York at the center, and a prescient pull quote from a Jan. 6, 1776, letter from John Adams to Washington, saying that New York is “Key to the whole Continent. . . . No effort to Secure it ought to be omitted.” Nearby is the letter itself, on loan from the Library of Congress.
Visitors next get a sense of the mood in New York, a city of 25,000 people sharply divided between Revolutionaries and Loyalists in the summer of 1776. “From the Battery at the foot of Manhattan,” one placard notes, “New Yorkers could see hundreds of ship masts—a terrifying sight to civilians and soldiers.”
Washington issued a broadside, on display here, telling residents to expect the worst and leave the city if they could. On July 6, shortly after the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence, an angry mob went to Bowling Green, a public square in lower Manhattan, and pulled down a gilded lead statue of George III on horseback. Some of the lead, legend has it, was melted down to make musket balls. The event is depicted in an 1850s oil painting by Johannes Adam Simon Oertel, part of the museum’s permanent collection.
The most impressive pre-battle artifact is a small pocket almanac kept by an unknown citizen. On the page for July 4 he noted that independence had been declared and then wrote “this fatal day, rivers of blood will flow.”
They wouldn’t flow until late August, when British troops landed in Gravesend and were given a hero’s welcome by local Loyalists, who would guide them through passes to flank Washington. But before visitors learn the details of the battle, they’re shown period weapons and uniforms, as well as the actual canvas cot that Washington slept on.
The battle itself is explained through a knee-high, tabletop video display, showing a map of Brooklyn and both sides’ troop movements over the three days of fighting. When the British get to the Vechte farmhouse, today called the Old Stone House and reconstructed in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, the map disappears and we see under clear glass a scale model of the farmhouse, with miniature British and American troops amassed around it. It’s a clever use of modern technology to show a key point in the battle. If not for the valiant stand of “the Maryland 400” the bulk of Washington’s force might not have been able to escape to Brooklyn Heights. From there, he wisely decided to retreat to Manhattan under the cover of darkness and fog on the night of Aug. 29. The exhibit notes that Washington’s troops were ferried to safety by Gen. John Glover and his Marbleheaders, a group of racially integrated fishermen from Massachusetts. When the fog lifted on the morning of Aug. 30, the Continental Army was gone. Some 2,000 American men were killed, wounded or captured, while the British casualties and prisoners numbered just under 400.
The British subsequently moved into New York and occupied it for the next seven years. The city was burned—perhaps by Nathan Hale, who was hanged for treason—a calamity seen here in an engraving of Franz Xaver Habermann’s depiction of the blaze. Washington had clearly been defeated, but the Continental Army survived to more famously cross the Delaware and surprise those same British troops some four months later on Christmas Eve. That makes the Battle of Brooklyn a story well worth remembering, and one that is told well here.
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