Washington's Crossing

by David Hackett Fischer

On Brooklyn Heights, General Howe advanced his siege lines methodically toward the American lines. Admiral Howe prepared to send his warships into the East River. Washington’s army would soon be surrounded, and its destruction appeared to be only a matter of time. Then something happened that seemed of small importance to General Howe. There was a change in the American weather. The first sign was a shift in the wind. The prevailing westerlies below New York backed around to the northeast, and the wind began to rise. Then came dark clouds, and a cold rain began to fall on August 28. On both sides it made life a muddy misery for private soldiers in sodden coats and flooded trenches. The next day was worse. The rain grew into a great storm, a classic American nor’easter with “such heavy rainfall as can hardly be remembered.” That morning Washington rode to the forward positions on Brooklyn Heights. He studied the British entrenchments through the driving rain, and the soldiers hard at work as the storm beat down on them. The siege lines advanced inexorably, protected by folds in the ground that the Americans had not been able to cover.49