a» EVACUATION BY THE BRITISH, 



for liberty and equal rights against arbitrary power. Look at the situation. 

 Suffolk County had its ablest men as delegates in the Continental Congress 

 at Philadelphia — the declaration of Independence, announcing the separa- 

 tion of the Colonies from Great Britain and the fundamental principles of 

 liberty, had been proclaimed by that Congress. All but about five hundred 

 of the three thousand male inhabitants capable of bearing arms in this 

 County were devoted to the Patriot cause. All over the land these men 

 were organizing in military companies. In Southold, Southampton, East- 

 Hampton, Brookhaven, Smithtown and Huntington, the old towns of that 

 period, the militia were drilling and preparing for the struggle. Washing- 

 ton, anxious to save Long Island from subjugation, had thrown such force 

 as he could spare across the East River, under General Green, occupying 

 fortifications on Brooklyn Heights. 



It was midsummer. The fields of golden grain waved in the sea 

 breezes which fanned the Island. At all the farm-houses the impending 

 invasion occupied the thoughts of all, and the hearts of all men and women 

 throbbed with apprehension of the approach of startling events, when sud- 

 denly there came horsemen riding swift as the wind' into all the villages who 

 announced in breathless tones that Lord Howe had arrived in New York 

 harbor with an immense fleet of war ships and transports and thirty thousand 

 soldiers threatening a landing on Long Island, and threatening to sweep it 

 with fire and sword. 



The militia of ■ Suffolk ' County, though weak in numbers, de' 

 termined to make a bold stand. The work of drilling and organizing for 

 resista:nce was pushed with renewed vigor. Col. Josiah Smith, then at 

 Southampton, was, on the loth of August summoned by the Continental 

 Congress to take command of the Suffolk County militia and hasten to 

 Brooklyn in aid of General Green. In about four days he had gathered a 

 men of about four hundred men — the towns in the County each contrib- 

 uting about their proportion of this force. General Woodhull, of lamented 

 memory, a son of Suffolk County, was also ordered to the front with the 

 force at his command. In all the homes of the Patriots, intense excitement 

 and hopeful courage prevailed. The question was which of the sons 

 should go to the war; and who can describe the emotion written in the 

 faces, and the tender words of parting which fell from the lips of the 

 mothers of that day as their sons hastily gathered their arms and left their 

 homes, many to be absent in the Continental Armies for long years, and 

 many never to return. 



But bitter humiliation and defeat, for a time, awaited the patriot cause. 

 The story of their subjugation is short. The Battle of Long Island was 

 fought at Brooklyn, August 27th, 1776, and lost. Long Island lay prostrate 

 at the feet of a conquering army. 



The military plans of General Washington for the defense of New 

 York and Long Island have met with adverse criticism, as do all plans that 

 fail, and the movements of the two armies at the battle of Long Island, 

 in which the British had about 15,000 soldiers partially engaged and the 

 patriots about an equal number, are involved in considerable obscurity, but 

 there is evidence enough to show that the Suffolk County Militia were in 

 the thickest of the fight for two d:\ys — that they stood in the trenches two 

 nights in the face of the enemy — that they suff'ered excessive loss owing to 

 their isolated position and want of support, and that they bravely main- 



