Washington decides to escape Brooklyn

250 years ago today and two days after the disastrous Battle of Brooklyn, Washington’s army was trapped in its fortifications at Brooklyn Heights. The British were close enough that one American soldier recorded on August 29 that they had thrown up a breastwork “within gun shot of our Lines.” National Park Service

Washington now faced the possibility that his army—and perhaps the Revolution itself—could be destroyed.

On August 29, he made the critical decision to evacuate Brooklyn secretly across the East River.

That evening, Colonel John Glover’s Marblehead Mariners, experienced Massachusetts seamen, began ferrying thousands of soldiers, horses, artillery and supplies across to Manhattan. The evacuation continued through the night of August 29–30, aided famously by fog that concealed the operation from the British. National Park Service

It’s hard to overstate this one: Washington didn’t win a battle on August 29, 1776. He saved his army. And by saving the army, he kept the Revolution alive.