Tuesday, August 27, 2013

237th anniversary of Battle of Long Island/Brooklyn

Today is the actual anniversary of this Revolutionary War battle in 1776 that George Washington and his troops would probably like to forget (they lost). It was their first major confrontation with the British Army, so has a special place in history. They staged re-enactments at the weekend, including down on Brooklyn Bridge Park beach, our favorite Saturday spot. Basically, after the Yanks kicked the Poms out of Boston in the spring, the Poms went back up to Canada to regroup then attacked New York with full force in the late summer. Washington foresaw this and headed down to NYC but was hopelessly outnumbered. The main fighting occurred in the Brooklyn part of Long Island (actually along the ridge of Brooklyn Heights where Prospect Park and Green-Wood Cemetery is today). GW and what was left of the Continental Army escaped over to Manhattan in the dark of night, fled north and ran into the Poms again in Harlem and also White Plains in Westchester County and lost both of those battles too, before retreating over the Hudson and into New Jersey to safe ground. That was it for the fighting for 1776 (the war continued until 1783, and NYC was occupied by the British Army until the end). Great to see these youngsters enjoying their guns. Being as he's a US citizen, we voluntarily inlisted Xavi to defend his homeland.

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