The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn Part 9

McDOUGALL'S BRIGADE.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL ALEXANDER McDOUGALL.

Brigade-Major, Richard Platt.

Late McDougall's, New York 428 Colonel Rudolph Ritzema, New York 434 " Charles Webb, Connecticut 542 " Jonathan Brewer (Artificers) 584

GREENE'S DIVISION.

MAJOR-GENERAL NATHANIEL GREENE.

AIDES-DE-CAMP.

Major William Blodgett, Major William S. Livingston.

NIXON'S BRIGADE.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN NIXON.

Brigade-Major, Daniel Box.

Colonel Edward Hand, Pennsylvania 288 " James Mitch.e.l.l Varnum, Rhode Island 391 " Daniel Hitchc.o.c.k, " 368 " Late Nixon's, Ma.s.sachusetts 419 " William Prescott, " 399 " Moses Little, " 453

HEARD'S BRIGADE.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL NATHANIEL HEARD.

Brigade-Major, Peter Gordon.

Colonel David Forman, New Jersey 372 " Phillip Johnston, " 235 " Ephraim Martin, " 382 " Silas Newcomb, " 336 " Phillip Van Cortlandt, " 269

CONNECTICUT MILITIA.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL OLIVER WOLCOTT.

Colonel Thompson, Connecticut 350 " Hinman, " "

" Pettibone, " "

" Cooke, " "

" Talcott, " "

" Chapman, " "

" Baldwin, " "

Lieutenant-Colonel Mead, " "

" " Lewis, " "

" " Pitkin, " "

Major Strong, " "

" Newberry, " "

LONG ISLAND MILITIA.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL NATHANIEL WOODHULL.[98]

Brigade-Major, Jonathan Lawrence.

Colonel Josiah Smith, Long Island 250 " Jeronimus Remsen, " 200

[Footnote 98: These regiments were nominally under General Woodhull, but actually under Greene and Sullivan. At the time of the battle of the 27th both were doing duty with Nixon's brigade. (Sullivan's orders, August 25th. _Doc.u.ment_ 2.) Their strength can only be estimated, but it is probably correct to say that together they were less than five hundred strong.]

ARTILLERY.

Colonel Henry Knox, Ma.s.sachusetts 406

As appears from a doc.u.ment among the papers of General Knox, the encampments and posts of these brigades, before the advance of the enemy, were fixed as follows: Scott's, in the city; Wadsworth's, along the East River, in the city; Parsons', from the ship-yards on the East River to Jones' Hill, and including one of the redoubts to the west of it; Stirling's and McDougall's, still further west as a reserve near Bayard's Hill; Fellows', on the Hudson, from Greenwich down to the "Gla.s.s House," about half-way to Ca.n.a.l Street; and James Clinton's, from that point down to the "Furnace," opposite the Grenadier Battery. These brigades, forming Putnam's, Spencer's, and Sullivan's divisions, with the Connecticut militia, were retained within the city and its immediate vicinity. Of Heath's division, Mifflin's brigade was posted at Fort Washington, at the upper end of the island, and George Clinton's at King's Bridge. Greene's division--Nixon's and Heard's brigades--with the exception of Prescott's regiment and Nixon's, now under his brother, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Nixon, which were on Governor's Island, occupied the Long Island front.[99]

[Footnote 99: See Appendix to Drake's _Life of General Knox_.]

A far more perfect and formidable army was that which lay encamped on Staten Island, seven miles down the bay. It was the best officered, disciplined, and equipped that Great Britain could then have mustered for any service. The fact that she found it difficult to raise new troops to conquer America only made it necessary to send forward all her available old soldiers. The greater part of Howe's army, accordingly, consisted of experienced regulars. He had with him twenty-seven regiments of the line, four battalions of light infantry and four of grenadiers, two battalions of the king's guards, three brigades of artillery, and a regiment of light dragoons, numbering in the aggregate about twenty-three thousand officers and men. The six thousand or more that came from Halifax were the Boston "veterans."

These had been joined by regiments from the West Indies; and among the reinforcements from Britain were troops that had garrisoned Gibraltar and posts in Ireland and England, with men from Scotland who had won a name in the Seven Years' War.[100] Howe's generals were men who showed their fitness to command by their subsequent conduct during the war.

Next to the commander-in-chief ranked Lieutenant-Generals Clinton, Percy, and Cornwallis; Major-Generals Mathews, Robertson, Pigot, Grant, Jones, Vaughan, and Agnew; and Brigadier-Generals Leslie, Cleveland, Smith, and Erskine.

[Footnote 100: The "Highlander" regiments were the Forty-second and Seventy-first. In _Stewart's Highlanders_, vol. i., p. 354, as quoted in the _Memoir of General Graham_, the following pa.s.sage appears: "On the 10th April, 1776, the Forty-second Regiment being reviewed by Sir Adolphus Oughton, was reported complete, and so unexceptionable that none were rejected. Hostilities having commenced in America, every exertion was made to teach the recruits the use of the firelock, for which purpose they were drilled even by candle-light. New arms and accoutrements were supplied to the men; and the colonel of the regiment, at his own expense, supplied _broadswords and pistols_....

The pistols were of the old Highland fashion, with iron stocks. These being considered unnecessary except in the field, were not intended, like the swords, to be worn by the men in quarters. When the regiment took the field on Staten and Long Island, it was said that the broadswords r.e.t.a.r.ded the men by getting entangled in the brushwood and they were therefore taken from them and sent on board the transports."]

The Hessians or "foreigners" formed more than one fourth of the enemy's strength. They numbered eight thousand officers and men, which, added to the distinctively British force, raised Howe's total to over thirty-one thousand. His total of effectives on the 27th of August was something more than twenty-four thousand.[101]

[Footnote 101: General Clinton, quoting from Howe's returns on this date, says he had "24,464 effectives fit for duty; a total of 26,980, officers not included, who, when added, amount to 31,625 men." See General Carrington's _Battles of the Revolution_, p. 199. To the British force should be added two or three companies of New York loyalists.]

Drawn up in complete array upon the field this army would have confronted Washington's in the following order:[102]

[Footnote 102: The list that follows is copied from what appears to have been the roster-book of Adjutant Gilfillan of the Fifty-fifth Regiment. The book was captured by Captain Nathaniel Fitz Randolph, of New Jersey (see _Doc.u.ment_ 56), and is now in the possession of Captain John C. Kinney, of Hartford, a great-grandson of the latter.

There is no date attached to the "Order of Battle," but from the few dates that follow it was probably made out in the first part of August, 1776. The list gives the full British strength, and is interesting as naming the majors of brigade, represented by the abbreviation M.B.]

ORDER OF BATTLE FOR THE BRITISH.

[SIR WILLIAM HOWE.]

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.

LIEUT GENLL CLINTON.