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Maryland’s Brave 400 at Long Island 

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On a wooded hillside in Brooklyn's Prospect Park (NY) a 27 foot high column stands as a memorial to the valiant and brave 400 Marylanders who fought in the Battle of Long Island on August, 27, 1776. The monument has been restored recently and rededicated by our Compatriots of New York, Maryland, and nearby states. A mile away beneath the paving and buildings at 3rd Avenue and 8th Street, lie 256 men of the 400 who covered the retreat of Washington's army. Most of them had never been in battle and yet they stood their ground for four long hours! William Alexander (Lord Stirling) a rugged Scot who claimed an earldom, was in charge of Col. William Smallwood's 400 Marylanders, and Col. John Haslet's 450 Delaware troops. The American forces numbered 10,000 and a force of 30,000 British regulars and German mercenaries opposed them. Stirling knew that he had to throw back the enemy and called up Major Mordecai Gist with the 400 Marylanders. Outnumbered by 25 to 1, they attacked the British under the lead of Stirling on six attempts. On the last charge they almost reached the British lines. Cornwallis had four regiments and the small number of Americans that were left ran for the swamp. As the avenues of escape were closed by the British, only one way out was left open. A marshy ground along Gowanus Creek would hold up the escape. When soldiers jumped into the swamp they were easy targets for any sharpshooters on the higher ground. Ironically, there had been a bridge over the Gowanus Creek that same morning, but a New England unit had crossed over and burned it down not knowing it was strategic for the entire army. Stirling was captured, and only a handfull got away. About 2 o'clock the battle ended. In the final tally, the Americans lost 1,407 killed, wounded, and missing, plus 800 taken prisoner. The British losses were 377 killed and wounded with 28 taken prisoner. The British dug 100-foot long trenches and buried 256 Marylanders on a knoll near the center of the swamp. George Washington and his staff watched all the action from a high hill. The entire American army of 23,000 men was now in danger of being captured! On the 29th, a council of war found that the American fortifications were not tenable. With only a day's rest, the Marylanders were ordered to Fort Putnam (West Point, Long Island), where they joined two Pennsylvania regiments and again were ordered to act as a rear guard in the retreat. Some 9,000 men escaped across the East River under cover of darkness and a thick fog with the aid of Glover's Marblehead Marines, who had assembled a flotilla of flat-bottomed boats and assorted sailing craft. About one-fourth of the Glover men were free-blacks and expert boatsmen. They would later show their skill on the Delaware river when they took the army over to Trenton to defeat the Hessians on Christmas Day. Of the 200 cannon that Washington had at Long Island, only 19 were in his hands when he got to Pennsylvania. A large detachment of war material was also lost. In 1897, on the 27th of August, General Horace Porter, President-General of the SAR led a great procession of famous people, elected officials, bands, and military units to dedicate a monument on Lookout Hill (The Colonial Magazine, Sept. 1895). An inscription on the front of the monument base reads, "In Honor of the Maryland Four Hundred, Who on this Battlefield, August 27, 1776 Saved the American Army." General Washington's words, "My God, What Brave Fellows I Must This Day Lose!" are enscribed on the reverse side of the base. (Note: General Horace Porter was the SAR's longest-serving President-General; his term in office covered the five years from 1892 thru 1897.) Around 1905 some twenty feet of fill dirt was dumped on top of the burial area. The land was leveled and the last sight of the graves erased. A tablet was set in the pavement, but when the road was widened in 1910 along 3rd Avenue, it was destroyed. In 1935, a bronze plaque was put on a four-story tenement building that held a bar, gym, and paint factory, but that too has disappeared. This is a costly lesson on historic preservation! In 1991, on the same date as 93 years previous, a rededication ceremony was held at the refurbished monument, which once again reminds passers-by of the sacrifices made as our nation struggled to gain its independence.

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