Council of War, 29 August 1776
Council of War
[Long Island, 29 August 1776]
At a Council of War held at Long Island, Augt 29. 1776. Present His Excellency, The Comander in Cheif[.] Majors General Putnam[,] Spencer. Brigrs Genls Mifflin[,] McDougall[,] Parsons[,] Scott[,] Wadsworth[,] Fellows.
It was submitted to the consideration of the Council whether under all circumstances It would not be Eligable to Leave Long Island & Its Dependencies & remove the Army to New York—Unanimously agreed in the Affirmative for the following reasons.
1st Because Our advanced party had met with a defeat & the Wood was lost where we expected to make a principal Stand.
2d The great Loss sustained in the death or Captivity of Several valuable Officers and their Battallions or a Large part of them had occasioned great confusion and discouragement among the Troops.
3d The Heavy rains which fell Two days & Nights with but Little Intermission had Injured the Arms & Spoiled a great part of the Ammunition, and the Soldiery being without Cover & Obliged to lay in the Lines were worn out and It was to be feared would not be retained in them by any Order.1
4 From the Time the Enemy moved from Flatbush, Several large Ships had attempted to get up as supposed into the East River to cut off our Communication, by which the whole Army would have been destroyed, But the Wind being N.E. could not affect It.
5th Upon consulting with persons of knowledge of the Harbour they were of Opinion that Small Ships might come between Long Island & Governors Island where there are no Obstructions and which would cut off the communication effectually, and who were also of Opinion the Hulks sunk between Governors Island & the City of New York were no sufficient Security for Obstructing that passage.
6. Through our Lines were fortified with some strong Redoubts, yet a Great part of them were weak being only abbattied with Brush and affording no strong cover, so that there was reason to apprehend they might be forced, which would have put our Troops in confusion & havg no retreat, they must have been cut to peices or made prisoners.2
7. The Divided state of the Troops rendered our defence very precarious, and the duty of defending long and extensive Lines at so many different places without proper conveniences & cover so very fatiguing that the Troops had become despirited by their Incessant duty and watching.
8 Because the Enemy had sent several Ships of War, into the sound, to a place called flushing bay, and from the information recieved that a part of their troops were moving across Long Island, that way, there was reason to apprehend, they meant to pass overland, & form an encampment above Kings bridge, in order to cut off & prevent all communication between our army, & the country beyond them or to get in our rear.3
D, in Robert Hanson Harrison’s and William Grayson’s writings, DLC:GW; DS (extract), in Joseph Reed’s writing, DLC:GW; copy, enclosed in GW to Hancock, 31 Aug. 1776, DNA:PCC, item 152; copy, DNA:PCC, item 169; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. The unsigned document in DLC:GW is in Harrison’s writing except for the eighth reason, which is in Grayson’s writing. Reed’s extract omits the reasons and is signed by all members except John Fellows and GW.
John Morin Scott is the only council member who is known to have expressed reservations about retreating. “I was summoned,” Scott wrote John Jay on 6 Sept., “to a Council of War at Mr. Philip Livingston’s house on Thursday 29th ult. never having had reason to expect a proposition for a retreat till it was mentioned. . . . As it was suddenly proposed, I as suddenly objected to it, from an aversion to giving the enemy a single inch of ground; but was soon convinced by the unanswerable reasons for it. They were these. Invested by an enemy of above double our number from water to water, scant in almost every necessary of life and without covering and liable every moment to have the communication between us and the city cut off by the entrance of the frigates into the East River between (late) Governor’s Island and Long Island; which General McDougall assured us from his own nautic experience was very feasible. In such a situation we should have been reduced to the alternative of desperately attempting to cut our way [through] a vastly superior enemy with certain loss of a valuable stock of artillery and artillery stores, which the continent has been collecting with great pains; or by famine and fatigue have been made an easy prey to the enemy. In either case the campaign would have ended in the total ruin of our army” (, part 2, 36–39).
For Joseph Reed’s alleged role in persuading GW to call this council of war, see , 1:226–27n; , 166; and , 4:172–73, n.218. For an account of the retreat from Long Island, which was executed successfully during the ensuing night, see GW to Hancock, 31 August.
1. “You may judge of our situation,” Scott wrote Jay on 6 Sept., “subject to almost incessant rains, without baggage or tents and almost without victuals or drink, and in some part of the lines the men were standing up to their middles in water” (, pt. 2, 36–39; see also , 165; , 27–28; Skewkirk, “Moravian Diary,” 147–48; and the New-York Journal; or, the General Advertiser, this date).
2. The place in the lines where Capt. Alexander Graydon of the 3d Pennsylvania Regiment was posted “was low and unfavourable for defence. There was a fraised ditch in its front, but it gave little promise of security, as it was evidently commanded by the ground occupied by the enemy, who entirely enclosed the whole of our position, at the distance of but a few hundred paces” (, 165; see also Scott to Jay, 6 Sept., in , pt. 2, 36–39; , 216; , 27; and , 10).
3. For intelligence about these warships near the western entrance to Long Island Sound, see Heath to GW, 26 Aug., and note 4. Flushing Bay, located on the northwest coast of Long Island, is a shallow inlet of the East River.