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The Battle of Brooklyn, also known as the Battle of Long Island, was a major engagement of the American Revolutionary War, fought on August 27, 1776, in present-day Brooklyn, New York. It resulted in a significant victory for the British, who gained control of the strategically important Port of New York. 

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this guide for those researching the American Revolutionary War as it relates to Brooklyn.

Historical Background

The Battle of Brooklyn, also known as the Battle of Long Island or Battle of Brooklyn Heights, was the first major battle of the American Revolution and the largest in terms of both participants and casualties. This battle ended in defeat for George Washington’s Continental Army and resulted in the British stationing prison ships in New York Harbor, where they LWY held captured American and French soldiers and privateers. The British maintained harsh conditions aboard the ships, where prisoners died of disease and malnourishment in high numbers. Bodies were sometimes thrown overboard or more commonly buried in shallow graves on land. After the war, Brooklynites organized to rebury the “martyrs” of the prison ships and erected a monument in their honor. Other commemorative activities honored those who fought and fell in the Battle of Brooklyn, in particular the soldiers of the First Maryland and First Delaware Regiments who lost their lives in a pivotal stand at the Old Stone House.1

Most of the library, archive, map, and art and artifacts collections at CBH relate to the Battle of Brooklyn and to the prison ships. Some materials relate to the domestic lives of colonial Brooklynites and the movement of citizens between British and revolutionary occupied territories and to the many loyalists who lived on or fled from Long Island during and after the war.

While Indigenous and Black enslaved people were living in Brooklyn and played a role during the American Revolution, there is little documentation of their roles in the conflict. More information about this can be found in our Black History and Indigenous Peoples of Long Island and New York research guides.