TRANSCRIPT 🔗
WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.260 --> 00:00:05.089
Sunday morning. Well, this week was a special week. You know,
2
00:00:05.230 --> 00:00:11.029
it's 250th year anniversary of our country. And today, this week,
3
00:00:11.910 --> 00:00:16.559
was the Battle of Brooklyn. With us today is Patrick O'Donnell.
4
00:00:16.929 --> 00:00:21.149
He's a historian, a public speaker, a best-selling author, and
5
00:00:21.510 --> 00:00:23.730
he's on with us this Sunday morning to talk about
6
00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:28.679
the Battle of Brooklyn and how crucial it was. Well,
7
00:00:29.359 --> 00:00:34.340
tell us, Patrick, give us your analysis of how crucial
8
00:00:34.600 --> 00:00:35.640
the Battle of Brooklyn was.
9
00:00:37.310 --> 00:00:39.929
John, this is one of the most important battles in
10
00:00:39.969 --> 00:00:43.520
American history that nobody has ever heard of. And why
11
00:00:43.579 --> 00:00:46.619
is it important? It's because the British could have conducted
12
00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:53.859
a crushing victory by destroying Washington's army, potentially capturing Washington
13
00:00:53.960 --> 00:00:58.929
and ending the Revolutionary War that week, 250 years ago.
14
00:00:59.869 --> 00:01:05.510
And it's a series of engagements, small unit actions, as
15
00:01:05.569 --> 00:01:09.829
well as an American Dunkirk that takes place that will
16
00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:14.120
save the revolution and allow the United States to continue
17
00:01:14.200 --> 00:01:18.379
to grow and foster and live on. And it was
18
00:01:18.459 --> 00:01:22.500
that week, though, 250 years ago, that it almost all ended.
19
00:01:24.379 --> 00:01:30.599
Understood. And what happened? I want people to understand, because
20
00:01:30.680 --> 00:01:35.230
a lot of our listeners, maybe 10% of them, 20%
21
00:01:35.230 --> 00:01:39.629
of them, or overall country, are New Yorkers. So they're
22
00:01:39.670 --> 00:01:43.750
interested about what happened. Absolutely, John.
23
00:01:44.090 --> 00:01:46.780
This is a situation that's over a year after the
24
00:01:47.799 --> 00:01:51.379
battles of Lexington and Concord and the siege of Boston
25
00:01:51.400 --> 00:01:55.659
where the British evacuate. They then come back. The empire
26
00:01:55.719 --> 00:02:00.390
strikes back with the largest force ever assembled to conquer
27
00:02:00.430 --> 00:02:04.370
North America and to crush the rebellion. They bring about
28
00:02:04.549 --> 00:02:07.290
most of the Royal Navy, which is the most powerful
29
00:02:07.609 --> 00:02:09.969
navy of the world at the time, as well as
30
00:02:10.069 --> 00:02:13.310
most of their, two-thirds of their army. They never have enough,
31
00:02:13.349 --> 00:02:18.680
so they bring in Hessian regulars from Germany that are
32
00:02:18.740 --> 00:02:21.240
brought in as allies, and they're there to crush Germany.
33
00:02:21.900 --> 00:02:24.659
the nascent United States in Washington. And Washington has the
34
00:02:24.740 --> 00:02:28.520
unenviable job of somehow defending New York City, which is
35
00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:31.860
mission impossible because it's surrounded by water, and the Royal
36
00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:35.139
Navy can land anywhere that they want. So he divides
37
00:02:35.199 --> 00:02:38.370
his army up into two parts. He defends Manhattan and
38
00:02:38.389 --> 00:02:42.870
then also Long Island. And it's on August 22nd that
39
00:02:42.889 --> 00:02:47.210
the British land at Long Island. Tens of thousands of troops,
40
00:02:47.250 --> 00:02:52.629
over 20,000 strong troops, And Washington has roughly 10,000 men
41
00:02:52.750 --> 00:02:56.270
on Long Island. And the largest battle up until that
42
00:02:56.370 --> 00:03:00.770
point of the Revolutionary War begins, interestingly enough, in a
43
00:03:00.849 --> 00:03:07.000
watermelon patch on August 26th, where British scouts are trying
44
00:03:07.009 --> 00:03:09.900
to find, they're basically probing American lines, and they come
45
00:03:09.960 --> 00:03:13.740
across the watermelon patch, which would be today, it was
46
00:03:14.120 --> 00:03:15.740
known as the Red Lion Inn, but it was the
47
00:03:15.819 --> 00:03:22.479
gates of Greenwood Cemetery in today's in the current-day geography,
48
00:03:23.039 --> 00:03:26.539
and it's there that they are repelled by the men
49
00:03:26.580 --> 00:03:29.080
in my next book, which is called Revolutionary Cypress, which
50
00:03:29.099 --> 00:03:33.689
is on the Revolutionary Riflemen, and they repel those scouts.
51
00:03:34.210 --> 00:03:37.569
But it's the next day that the crown comes on strong,
52
00:03:37.650 --> 00:03:41.370
and most of the American forces are arrayed on the
53
00:03:41.409 --> 00:03:45.180
heights of Gowanus, which is today's Greenwood Cemetery. And the
54
00:03:45.240 --> 00:03:50.199
British have this incredibly novel flanking maneuver where they go
55
00:03:50.259 --> 00:03:53.580
through the Jamaica Pass, which is only guarded that night
56
00:03:53.620 --> 00:03:58.129
by five men on horseback, which are quickly captured. And 10,000
57
00:03:58.129 --> 00:04:01.810
men go through Jamaica Pass, and they are conducting a
58
00:04:01.849 --> 00:04:06.000
massive flanking maneuver and surround effectively the men on the
59
00:04:06.030 --> 00:04:06.810
heights of Gowanus.
60
00:04:07.699 --> 00:04:08.300
And it's here.
61
00:04:09.250 --> 00:04:11.870
that one of the greatest small unit actions in American
62
00:04:11.889 --> 00:04:17.240
history take place were 400 Marylanders. The Washingtons, known as
63
00:04:17.300 --> 00:04:21.040
Washington's Immorals, I wrote a best-selling book on it, five
64
00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:25.379
companies of men would make a suicidal bayonet charge against
65
00:04:25.480 --> 00:04:29.139
a position occupied by Cornwallis. They were some of the
66
00:04:29.300 --> 00:04:31.579
only men in the Continental Army at the time that
67
00:04:31.620 --> 00:04:36.800
had bayonets, and they risked their
Load full transcript
lives. Their motto was
68
00:04:36.879 --> 00:04:40.050
men of honor, family, and fortune. They were some of
69
00:04:40.069 --> 00:04:44.089
the richest families from Baltimore and Maryland, and they conducted
70
00:04:44.129 --> 00:04:48.360
a series of rearguard actions, these bayonet charges, that allowed
71
00:04:48.399 --> 00:04:52.060
the bulk of the American Army to escape across the
72
00:04:52.079 --> 00:04:55.199
Mill Pond and Gowanus Creek and into the heights of
73
00:04:55.220 --> 00:04:57.579
Brooklyn at the time.
74
00:04:58.019 --> 00:04:58.720
And it.
75
00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:02.660
Was an hour more precious in our history than any
76
00:05:02.740 --> 00:05:07.620
other as a contemporary historian would say. Their sacrifice... prevented
77
00:05:07.660 --> 00:05:10.810
the major wings of the British and Hessian armies from
78
00:05:10.939 --> 00:05:16.870
coming together, converging, and smashing Washington's entire force, which would
79
00:05:16.889 --> 00:05:19.290
have thereby ended the entire Revolutionary War.
80
00:05:20.889 --> 00:05:22.990
Understood. And that made the difference.
81
00:05:24.089 --> 00:05:27.649
It makes all the difference. It's a situation where individuals
82
00:05:27.730 --> 00:05:32.329
and their agency could change the course of time. It's
83
00:05:32.449 --> 00:05:36.149
a small unit action situation. And it's not the end
84
00:05:36.230 --> 00:05:38.889
of the– Washington is not out of the woods yet, though.
85
00:05:40.029 --> 00:05:43.110
And he has to basically endure two days of a
86
00:05:43.250 --> 00:05:47.250
siege against the combined British and Hessian armies. And there's
87
00:05:47.269 --> 00:05:50.610
the Royal Navy, which is parked in New York Harbor
88
00:05:50.629 --> 00:05:53.069
and about to go up the East River. And here
89
00:05:53.110 --> 00:05:56.300
he conducts the greatest evacuation in military history. It's the
90
00:05:56.329 --> 00:06:00.339
American Dunkirk and the men from Marblehead. I wrote a
91
00:06:00.379 --> 00:06:04.509
book called The Indispensables. They put together all the small boats,
92
00:06:04.870 --> 00:06:07.930
and they ferry across the East River, which is a
93
00:06:08.009 --> 00:06:11.949
raging torrent, because there's a massive storm that takes place
94
00:06:11.970 --> 00:06:15.850
for two days. And somehow, miraculously, they get across, and
95
00:06:15.889 --> 00:06:19.089
there's a fog that comes in in the morning that
96
00:06:19.209 --> 00:06:22.629
screens their movement at exactly the right time at dawn,
97
00:06:23.389 --> 00:06:27.439
and they're able to get the army off. without losing
98
00:06:28.060 --> 00:06:29.819
most of their men. It's an incredible story.
99
00:06:29.839 --> 00:06:33.160
Patrick O'Donnell, thank you for coming on this Sunday morning
100
00:06:33.220 --> 00:06:36.000
to tell us about the Battle of Brooklyn, something that
101
00:06:36.019 --> 00:06:42.610
was very important for our 250th year anniversary, and let's
102
00:06:42.649 --> 00:06:43.629
catch up again real soon.
103
00:06:44.790 --> 00:06:47.399
Absolutely, John. It was an honor and a privilege to
104
00:06:47.439 --> 00:06:48.279
be back on your show.