The largest battle of the Revolution nearly ended it before it began — only a miraculous foggy night evacuation saved Washington's entire army.
On August 27, 1776, just seven weeks after the Declaration of Independence, the British launched the largest military operation of the entire Revolutionary War. General Howe landed 20,000 troops on Long Island against Washington's force of 10,000.
The battle was decided by a bold British flanking maneuver. While diversionary attacks hit the American front, General Clinton marched 10,000 soldiers through the unguarded Jamaica Pass in the dead of night, emerging behind the American lines at dawn. The colonial position collapsed.
In the chaos, about 260-270 Maryland troops — later immortalized as 'The Maryland 400' — launched a suicidal rearguard action against overwhelming British forces at a stone farmhouse. Their sacrifice bought time for the rest of the army to escape to Brooklyn Heights. Most of them died.
Washington was trapped. His army was pinned between Howe's forces and the East River, with the British fleet waiting to block escape by water. It appeared the Continental Army would be destroyed and the Revolution ended in its first summer.
Then the weather intervened. A thick fog rolled in on the night of August 29, blinding British sentries. Washington ordered a total evacuation. Colonel Glover's regiment of Massachusetts fishermen silently rowed 9,000 soldiers, their horses, and their artillery across the river in flat-bottomed boats. Not a single man was lost.
Washington had suffered his worst defeat but preserved his army to fight on. Howe, remembering the slaughter at Bunker Hill, chose siege over assault — a decision that let the Continental Army survive to fight another day, and another year.