OPINION — Ernest Hemingway is credited with saying that all true stories, if carried far enough, end in death. The following is a true story of sacrifice, before there was a Memorial Day commemorated or, for that matter, even a country. The event centered on a crucial battle during the American Revolution.
Fifteen months after the conflict began, the Americans formally declared independence from Britain. The feel-good atmosphere did not last long. Having moved from the north, the British military, under Gen. William Howe, landed in Staten Island, New York, in July 1776, with the goal of taking over New York City. Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army was split between Brooklyn and Manhattan.
On Aug. 22, 1776, the British landed around 15,000 troops, unopposed, at Denyse’s Ferry and Gravesend Bay in Brooklyn, at and near the present Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. Several thousand more troops subsequently arrived. Learning of the action at his Manhattan headquarters, Gen. Washington made the first of several critical mistakes.
