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Red Hook Lane Arresick is a revolutionary war burial ground in Red Hook, Brooklyn. During the Battle of Brooklyn, General Stirling's retreating forces fought a rearguard action. Continental Army riflemen fleeing the destruction of Fort Defiance fired shots at British troops advancing on the Carnarsie Indian path through Gowanus, killing a Lt. Colonel and his aide. [1] They and the Pennsylvanian rifleman who shot them are buried together nearby on the path later called Red Hook Lane. [2]
Cypress Tree Island was a tidewater marsh which the arriving Dutch in 1630 called Roode Hoek, from the red clay nearby. Dutch expertise in filling swampy ground served the peninsula well, solid ground was needed for the heavy cannons and the 40–50 feet of elevation gave the colonials advantage. Fort Defiance is unmarked with the exception of a small historical sign at the end of the Coffey Street pier, about 2 blocks away from its true location at Van Dyke street and Conover street. The fort was destroyed by bombardment from the H.M.S. Roebuck during the battle. [3] [4] The only access was an Indian trail called Red Hook Lane which led to brooklyn heights, that road's last remnant was un-mapped in 2020. [5]
On August 27, 1776, during the Battle of Long Island, five cannons, a series of earthworks and a defensive wall was manned by colonials on an island in New York Bay. [6] It was the westernmost of forts along Brooklyn heights defending the Upper New York Bay from incursion by the British navy. [7] Prior to the battle a thousand men worked under General Israel Putnam's direction to prepare for the invasion of New York, building the fort during one night in April. [8] General George Washington inspected the fort in May, finding it 'exceedingly strong'. [9] The complex consisted of three redoubts on the small island connected by trenches, with an earthwork on the island's south side to defend against a landing. [10] [11] [12]
A British officer, Lt. Colonel James Grant was in the vanguard of troops attempting a flanking maneuver on the right side of the American line, following the retreat at Battle Hill. The Colonel pursued through the marshland and over Gowanus Creek when a Pennsylvanian rifleman, perched in a tree, shot him and an aide. [13] The return fire dropped the minuteman, and the army paused to bury the Major and the trooper next to Red Hook lane. They continued the advance on General George Washington's position in Brooklyn Heights, leaving the American where he fell. Later, sympathizers buried the minuteman in the same place. [14] [15] The Americans were buoyed by the name, which was sewn in the headgear, [16] mistakenly thinking that much reviled Major-General Grant, the leader of the left-wing of the Gravesend assault had been killed. [17] [18] The rifleman was interred in a hollow tree trunk, taken from a tree struck by lightning.
Almost the entire New York metropolitan area was under British military occupation from the end of 1776 until November 23, 1783, when they evacuated the city. [19]
John Burkard, a historian who grew up in Red Hook and spent most of his retirement researching the colonial history of Roode Hoek, found maps dating to 1766 showing an earlier fort on the island from the 1600s and was convinced that the oddly shaped building at Columbia and Nelson streets is the location of the burial ground. [20] The building, built in 1932, had a corner cut off and left undeveloped, neighborhood folklore has that this was the revolutionary war arresick (Dutch.burial ground) of Lt. Colonel Grant and the two troopers. He advocated for a heritage trail through Red Hook from the Arresick to Fort Defiance. [21] In 2007 street signs were added to Coffey street, Conover St, Walcott Street, Dwight St, and Columbia street marking the Red Hook Lane heritage trail, which begins opposite the burial ground and follows the path back to Fort Defiance. [22]
Arresick, in the List of New Netherland placename etymologies
Fort Ticonderoga, formerly Fort Carillon, is a large 18th-century star fort built by the French at a narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain, in northern New York, in the United States. It was constructed by Canadian-born French military engineer Michel Chartier de Lotbinière, Marquis de Lotbinière between October 1755 and 1757, during the action in the "North American theater" of the Seven Years' War, often referred to in the US as the French and Indian War. The fort was of strategic importance during the 18th-century colonial conflicts between Great Britain and France, and again played an important role during the Revolutionary War.
The Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn and the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, was an action of the American Revolutionary War fought on August 27, 1776, at and near the western edge of Long Island in present-day Brooklyn. The British defeated the Continental Army and gained access to the strategically important Port of New York, which they held for the rest of the war. It was the first major battle to take place after the United States declared its independence on July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia. It was the largest battle of the Revolutionary War in terms of both troop deployment and combat.
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Red Hook is a neighborhood in western Brooklyn, New York City, New York, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. It is located on a peninsula projecting into the Upper New York Bay and is bounded by the Gowanus Expressway and the Carroll Gardens neighborhood on the northeast, Gowanus Canal on the east, and the Upper New York Bay on the west and south. A prosperous shipping and port area in the early 20th century, the area declined in the latter part of the century. Today it is home to the Red Hook Houses, the largest housing project in Brooklyn.
Gowanus is a neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community District 6. Gowanus is bounded by Wyckoff Street on the north, Fourth Avenue on the east, the Gowanus Expressway to the south, and Bond Street to the west.
Hugh Mercer was a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He fought in the New York and New Jersey campaign and was mortally wounded at the Battle of Princeton.
William Smallwood was an American planter, soldier and politician from Charles County, Maryland. He served in the American Revolutionary War, rising to the rank of major general. He was serving as the fourth Governor of Maryland when the state adopted the United States Constitution.
John Haslet was an American Presbyterian clergyman and soldier from Milford, in Kent County, Delaware. He was a veteran of the French and Indian War and an officer of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, serving as the first Colonel of the 1st Delaware Regiment. He was killed in action at the Battle of Princeton.
The Battle of Great Bridge was fought December 9, 1775, in the area of Great Bridge, Virginia, early in the American Revolutionary War. The no by colonial Virginia militia forces led to the departure of Royal Governor Lord Dunmore and any remaining vestiges of British power over the Colony of Virginia during the early days of the conflict.
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The 1st Rhode Island Regiment was a regiment in the Continental Army raised in Rhode Island during the American Revolutionary War (1775–83). It was one of the few units in the Continental Army to serve through the entire war, from the siege of Boston to the disbanding of the Continental Army on November 3, 1783.
Kings Highway is a broad avenue that curves about the southern part of the Borough of Brooklyn in New York City. Its west end is at Bay Parkway and 78th Street. East of Ocean Avenue, the street is largely residential. It tracks eastward, then northeast, then north through Brooklyn and reaches East 98th Street in central Brooklyn. At that point, it flows into Howard Avenue to provide seamless access to Eastern Parkway, another major road in Brooklyn with side medians and service roads.
Fort Washington was a fortified position near the north end of Manhattan Island, at the island's highest point, within the modern-day neighborhood of Washington Heights in New York City. The Fort Washington Site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
1776 is celebrated in the United States as the official beginning of the nation, with the Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies from the British Empire issued on July 4.
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The Maryland 400 were members of the 1st Maryland Regiment who repeatedly charged a numerically superior British force during the Battle of Long Island during the Revolutionary War, sustaining heavy casualties, but allowing General Washington to successfully evacuate the bulk of his troops to Manhattan. This action is commemorated in Maryland's nickname, the "Old Line State." A monument in Brooklyn and multiple plaques were put up in the memory of this regiment and the fallen soldiers.
Fort Defiance (Brooklyn) was one of the forts constructed by General Nathanael Greene in 1776 to provide for the defense of New York.
This is a list of Historic Sites on the Revolutionary War Heritage Trail in the American state of New York. The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and the office of Heritage, New York, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn College and the City University of New York, and a local not-for-profit organization, Brooklyn Heritage, Inc.; placed a series of signs depicting 18 sites of historical significance in Brooklyn.
Gowanus and Red Hook travel guide from Wikivoyage
