Phase 4: The Battle of Brooklyn
The Revolutionary War in New York in 1776
The Delaware Regiment
* * * * *
"There the old-fashioned colonel galloped through the white infernal
Powder cloud;
And his broad sword was swinging, and his brazen throat was ringing
Trumpet loud:
There the blue
Bullets flew,
And the trooper jackets redden at the touch of the leaden
Rifle breath;
And rounder, rounder, rounder, roared the iron six-pounder,
Hurling Death!"
...last stanza of The Old Continentals by Guy Humphrey McMaster, 1848.
* * * * *
The Battle of Brooklyn covered in Phases 4 and 5 was the largest of the entire 8-year war. From the Village of Bedford, just north and east of Prospect Park, General Howe fired the signal guns that launched the battle in earnest. The British headed through Jamaica pass and flanked westwards in a surprised attack on the American forces defending their position southwards against Von Heister's Hessians who were advancing north.
A fierce and bloody combat ensued. The American commander Sullivan, perceiving the peril ordered a retreat to the lines at Brooklyn. On descending the rough slope from Mount Prospect (behind the Brooklyn Museum), they were met by Clinton’s light infantry and dragoons in Battle Pass (Prospect Park's East Drive), who drove them back in confusion upon the Hessian bayonets. Sullivan and his ensnared soldiers fought desperately, hand to hand, with the foe, while driven backward and forward between the full ranks of the assailants. Many broke through the gleaming fence of bayonets and sabers, and escaped while their less fortunate companions died upon the field or were made prisoners including Sullivan himself.
About the 1776 cache series:This series of caches take you through the political intrigues and armed battles in the city of New York during the Revolutionary War in 1776. Each cache Phase consists of a tour of the local area’s Revolutionary sites. You will gather clues that will provide the coordinates for the cache container for that Phase. Containers will vary from ammo cans, plastic containers and magnetic micros limited by the locale – woods, parks and urban street. The larger containers will have memorabilia such as replicas of revolutionary coins, paper money, musket balls, Declaration of Independence on parchment, etc. as well as more traditional cache treasure. Please take one memento only and leave the rest for other cachers. Leave something if you take something but don't stuff the smaller containers.
Click on the bookmark on the upper right side for a list of all 1776 cache phases. Each stands on it’s own. You do not have to follow any particular order although doing so gives a better prospective of the action. Cachers logging finds in all 8 phases will have their names added to the Cacher's Honor Roll in the Phase 8 cache web page. Campaign maps in the photo section provide orientation for each Phase and for the whole City. However, these are not needed to do the cache.
The caches follow much of this companion tour guide and book. For those traveling on foot, it provides public transportation methods for getting around. However, they are not required to find the cache.THE BATTLE FOR NEW YORK: The City at the Heart of the American Revolution by Barnet Schecter.
Start your Phase 4 tour at Lefferts Homestead. Phase 4 campaign route is about a mile walk in Prospect Park where the battles above took place and where the cache is located as well as all the quiz stops. At the first stop at Leffert's Homestead, there's a carousel next door for the kids and the Brooklyn Zoo is just north five minutes to walk too. Check times before going if you like to do either. You may wish to hunt Phase 3 cache first as its container is also located in Prospect Park although the various stops are in other areas of Brooklyn.
A. Lefferts Homestead N40 39.843 W73 57.835
The homestead was a Dutch farmhouse that was burned before the battle by units of Pennsylvania riflemen sent out to harass the British. The reconstructed house is now a children’s museum. There's a carousel next door for the kids and the Brooklyn Zoo is just north five minutes to walk too. Check times before going if you like to do either.
Lefferts Homestead quiz- How many steps up to the porch on the west side of the building?
1. Two steps
2. Four steps
3. Six steps
ENTER A answer (1, 2 or 3) = ________
From here, you’ll be heading heading north, past the Zoo, to a point where the paved road rises between two wooded hills. This is the Flatbush Pass, now called Battle Pass, where General Sullivan commanded the center of the American line. Three plaques mark the site as you approach from the south. Imagine the enemy breathing down your back.
B. Dongan Oak Monument N40 39.959 W73 57.987
This is the first plaque of three, a granite pedestal topped with a bronze eagle. It was here that Sullivan’s men threw down an oak tree to impede the British advance.
Dongan Oak Monument –Which way is the eagle looking?
1. East
2. South
3. North
ENTER B answer (1, 2 or 3) = ________
C. Battle Pass N40 39.985 W73 58.030
In the pass itself bears the second bronze tablet, entitled Historic Marker of Battle Pass. It was here between the hills on both sides of you that American forces held their ground against the Hessians until the British flanking movement from the east broke their lines forcing a retreat under fire. Many were killed or captured. The Hessians were taking no prisoners. In order to get the Hessians to fight more brutally, the British told them falsely that the Americans would do the same to them.
Battle Pass quiz- Where is the plaque located?
1. On the east side of the road.
2. On an island in the middle of the road.
3. On the west side of the road.
ENTER C answer (1, 2 or 3) = ________
D. Battle of Long Island Plaque N40 40.010 W73 58.053
A third plaque on a boulder further north up the road on the right indicates the actual battle as being to the south from where you just came.
Battle of Long Island Plaque quiz- How many feet south is it to the Battle?
1. 175 feet
2. 200 feet
3. 225 feet
ENTER D answer (1, 2 or 3) = ________
As you travel southwest through the woods and fields to the next stop, imagine the battles blazing around you where today you see people picnicking and walking their dogs.
E. Maryland Monument N40 39.500 W73 58.184 184
This monument honors the Marylanders who fought under the patriot Lord Stirling and joined him in the rearguard action against Cornwallis in the Vechte House, which is in the next Phase.
Maryland Monument quiz- What’s the last word in the inscription?
1. battle.
2. heroes.
3. army.
ENTER E answer (1, 2 or 3) = ________
Find the container next.
Cache Container Coordinates:
Enter the number for each of your five answers and add them up:
A______ + B _______ + C _______ + D_______ + E_______
= Total ________
The coordinates for the cache are determined by your total. Not all possible totals are listed. There is only one correct coordinate.
If your total is 8, the cache coordinates are: N40 39.489 W73 58.242
If your total is 9, the cache coordinates are: N40 39.460 W73 58.250
If your total is 10, the cache coordinates are: N40 39.455 W73 58.177
If your total is 11, the cache coordinates are: N40 39.500 W73 58.149
If your total is 12, the cache coordinates are: N40 39.551 W73 58.097
Congratulations on finding the cache for Phase 4.
Phase 5 Retreat to Manhattan follows next.