On September 21, 1776, the city suffered a devastating fire of an uncertain origin after the evacuation of Washington's Continental Army at the beginning of the occupation. With hundreds of houses destroyed, many residents had to live in makeshift housing built from old ships.[4] In addition, over 10,000 Patriot soldiers and sailors died on prison ships in New York waters (Wallabout Bay) during the occupation—more Patriots died on these ships than died in every single battle of the war, combined.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] These men are memorialized, and many of their remains are interred, at the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument in Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn.[citation needed]
British evacuation
In mid-August 1783, Sir Guy Carleton, the last British Army and Royal Navy commander in the former British America, received orders from his superiors in London for the evacuation of New York. He informed the President of the Confederation Congress that he was proceeding with the subsequent withdrawal of refugees, liberated slaves, and military personnel as fast as possible, but that it was not possible to give an exact date because the number of refugees entering the city recently had increased dramatically (more than 29,000 Loyalist refugees were eventually evacuated from the city).[14][15] The British also evacuated over 3,000 Black Loyalists, former slaves they had liberated from the Americans, to Nova Scotia, East Florida, the Caribbean, and London,[16] and refused to return them to their American slaveholders and overseers as the provisions of the Treaty of Paris had required them to do. The Black Brigade were among the last to depart.[17]
Carleton gave a final evacuation date of 12:00 noon on November 25, 1783. An anecdote by New York physician Alexander Anderson told of a scuffle between a British officer and the proprietress of a boarding house, as she defiantly raised her own American flag before noon.[18] Following the departure of the British, the city was secured by American troops under the command of General Henry Knox.[19]
Legendary flag-raising
Washington's Grand Entry into New York, November 25, 1783 by Alphonse Bigot
Entry to the city under General George Washington was delayed until a still-flying British Union Flag could be removed. The flag had been nailed to a flagpole at Fort George on the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan. The pole was greased as a final act of defiance. After a number of men attempted to tear down the British colors, wooden cleats were cut and nailed to the pole and, with the help of a ladder, an army veteran, John Van Arsdale, was able to ascend the pole, remove the flag, and replace it with the Stars and Stripes before the British fleet had completely sailed out of sight.[20][21] The same day, a liberty pole with a flag was erected at New Utrecht Reformed Church; its successor still stands there.[22][23] Another liberty pole was raised in Jamaica, Queens, in a celebration that December.[24]
Washington's entry
Finally, seven years after the retreat from Manhattan on November 16, 1776, General George Washington and Governor of New York George Clinton reclaimed Fort Washington on the northwest corner of Manhattan Island and then led the Continental Army in a triumphal procession march down the road through the center of the island onto Broadway in the Town to the Battery.[25] The evening of Evacuation Day, Clinton hosted a public dinner at Fraunces Tavern, which Washington attended. It concluded with thirteentoasts, according to a contemporary account in Rivington's Gazette, the company drinking to:[26]
A week later, on December 3, the British detachment under Captain James Duncan, under orders of Rear Admiral Robert Digby, evacuated Governors Island, the last of part of the-then City of New York to be occupied,[28][29][30] and afterward Major-General Guy Carleton departed Staten Island on December 5.[31][32]
It is claimed a British gunner fired the last shot of the Revolution either on Evacuation Day or when the last British ships left a week later, loosing a cannon at jeering crowds gathered on the shore of Staten Island as his ship passed through the Narrows at the mouth of New York Harbor, though the shot fell well short of the shore.[33][34] This has been described by historians as an urban legend.[35]
On December 4, at Fraunces Tavern, at Pearl and Broad Streets, General Washington formally said farewell to his officers with a short statement, taking each one of his officers and official family by the hand.[36] Later, Washington headed south, being cheered and fêted on his way at many stops in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. By December 23, he arrived in Annapolis, Maryland, where the Confederation Congress was then meeting at the Maryland State House to consider the terms of the Treaty of Paris. At their session in the Old Senate Chamber, he made a short statement and offered his sword and the papers of his commission to the President and the delegates, thereby resigning as commander-in-chief. He then retired to his plantation home, Mount Vernon, in Virginia.[37]
Commemoration
Early popularity
View of the commemorative flagpole at the Battery in its "gigantic churn", during a visit by the French frigate Embuscade (shortly before the action of 31 July 1793)Painting of flagstaff and "churn" at the BatteryThe "churn" after its retirement as flagstaff, c. 1825
The British Fort George at Bowling Green was also demolished in 1790, and in that year the "Battery Flagstaff" was built adjacent on newly reclaimed land at the Battery. It was privately managed by William and then Lois Keefe. Referred to colloquially as "the churn", as it resembled to some a gigantic butter churn, Washington Irving described a September 1804 visit to the commemorative flagpole in his A History of New York as "The standard of our city, reserved, like a choice handkerchief, for days of gala, hung motionless on the flag-staff, which forms the handle to a gigantic churn".[41] In 1809, a new flagstaff further east on the Battery was erected with a decorative gazebo, and was operated as a concession until it was demolished about 1825.[42][43][44][45][46] The military band led by Patrick Moffat of George Izard's Second Regiment of Artillery sometimes held evening concerts.[47] The Battery Flagstaff commemorated Evacuation Day, and was the site of the city's annual flag-raising celebration for over a century. A flag-raising was held twice a year, on Evacuation Day and on the Fourth of July, and after 1853 flag-raisings on these days were also held at The Blockhouse further north.[48][49][50] John Van Arsdale is said to have been a regular flag-raiser at the early commemorations.[50]
The Scudder's American Museum / Barnum's American Museum held what it claimed was the original 1783 Evacuation Day flag until the museum's burning in 1865, and flew it on Evacuation Day and the Fourth of July.[51]
On Evacuation Day 1811, the newly completed Castle Clinton was dedicated with the firing of its first gun salute.[52]
On Evacuation Day 1830 (or rather, on November 26 due to inclement weather), thirty thousand New Yorkers gathered on a march to Washington Square Park in celebration of that year's July Revolution in France.[53][54]
For over a century the event was commemorated annually with patriotic and political connotations, as well as embracing a general holiday atmosphere.[55] Sometimes featured were greasy pole climbing contests for boys to recreate taking down the Union Jack.[56][31] Evacuation Day also became a time for theatrical spectacle, with for example an 1832 Bowery Theatre double bill of Junius Brutus Booth and Thomas D. Rice.[57][58] David Van Arsdale is said to have raised the flag after his father's death in 1836.[48][50] There was also a traditional parade from near the current Cooper Union down the Bowery to the Battery.[50]
The importance of the commemoration was waning in 1844, with the approach of the Mexican–American War of 1846–1848.[59]
However, the dedication of the monument to William J. Worth, the Mexican–American War general, at Madison Square was purposely held on Evacuation Day 1857.[60]
In August 1863, the Battery Flagstaff was destroyed by a lightning strike; it was subsequently replaced.[61][62]
Before it was a national holiday, Thanksgiving was proclaimed at various dates by state governors – as early as 1847, New York held Thanksgiving on the same date as Evacuation Day, a convergence happily noted by Walt Whitman, writing in the Brooklyn Eagle. The observance of the date was also diminished by the Thanksgiving Day Proclamation by 16th President Abraham Lincoln on October 3, 1863, that called on Americans "in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving."[63] That year, Thursday fell on November 26. In later years, Thanksgiving was celebrated on or near the 25th, making Evacuation Day redundant.[64]
It's Evacuation Day, when the British ran away, Please, dear Master, give us holiday![69]
Over time, the celebration and its anti-British sentiments became associated with the local Irish American community.[55] This community's embrace also may have inspired Evacuation Day in Boston, which began to be celebrated there in 1901, and taking advantage of the anniversary of the lifting of the Siege of Boston in 1776, which was by coincidence on Saint Patrick's Day.
Centennial and 20th century fading
Raising the Stars and Stripes, 1883 print showing John Van Arsdale's 1783 raising of a variant of the Cowpens flag, and the discarding of an historically-inaccurate version of the Union Jack (post-1801 with the blue and red reversed, not the pre-1801 flag)
In the 1890s, the anniversary was celebrated in New York at Battery Park with the raising of the Stars and Stripes by Christopher R. Forbes, the great-grandson of John Van Arsdale, with the assistance of a Civil War veterans' association from Manhattan—the Anderson Zouaves.[71]John Lafayette Riker, the original commander of the Anderson Zouaves, was also a grandson of John Van Arsdale. Riker's older brother was the New York genealogist James Riker, who authored Evacuation Day, 1783[72] for the spectacular 100th anniversary celebrations of 1883, which were ranked as "one of the great civic events of the nineteenth century in New York City."[73] David Van Arsdale had died in November 1883 just before the centennial,[74] having helped revive the event the year previous,[75] and he was succeeded by his grandson.[50]
In 1900, Christopher R. Forbes was denied the honor of raising the flag at the Battery on Independence Day and on Evacuation Day[78] and it appears that neither he nor any Veterans' organization associated with the Van Arsdale-Riker family or the Anderson Zouaves took part in the ceremony after this time. In 1901, Forbes raised the flag at the dedication of Bennett Park.[79]
In the early 20th century, the 161-foot flagpole used was the mast of the 1901 America's Cup defender Constitution[80][81][82] designed by Herreshoff, replacing a wooden pole struck by lightning in 1909.[83] The event was officially celebrated for the last time on November 25, 1916, with a march down Broadway for a flag raising ceremony by sixty members of the Old Guard.[34][84][85] Future commemorations were forestalled by the American entry into World War I and the alliance with Britain. The position of the flagstaff at this time was described as near Battery Park's sculptures of John Ericsson and Giovanni da Verrazzano.[86][87] The commemorative flagpole was still listed as an attraction on a map of Battery Park in the WPA New York City Guide of 1939.[88]
On Evacuation Day 1922, the main monument at Battle Pass in Brooklyn's Prospect Park was dedicated.
The flagpole was removed during the 1940-1952 construction of Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel and the relandscaping of the park. In 1955, the 102-foot Marine Flagstaff was erected in the approximate area of the one formerly commemorating Evacuation Day.[89] Later, City Council President Paul O'Dwyer expressed interest in a restored flagpole for the 1976 United States Bicentennial.[56] A bicentennial of Evacuation Day in 1983 featured the labor leader Harry Van Arsdale Jr.[90] A commemorative plaque marking Evacuation Day was put on a flagpole at Bowling Green in 1996.[91]
The renaming of a portion of Bowling Green, a street in Lower Manhattan to Evacuation Day Plaza was proposed by Arthur R. Piccolo, the chairman of the Bowling Green Association, and James S. Kaplan of the Lower Manhattan Historical Society. The proposal was initially turned down by the New York City Council in 2016 because the council's rules for street renaming specify that a renamed street must commemorate a person, an organization, or a cultural work. However, with the support of Councilwoman Margaret Chin, and after supporters of the renaming pointed to streets and plazas named after "Do the Right Thing Way", "Diversity Plaza", "Hip Hop Boulevard", and "Ragamuffin Way", the council reversed its decision and approved the renaming of the street on February 5, 2016.[98][34]
References
Notes
^A Toast To Freedom: New York Celebrates Evacuation Day. Fraunces Tavern Museum. 1984. p. 7.
^Field, Thomas Warren. The Battle of Long Island: With Connected Preceding Events, and the Subsequent American Retreat Long Island Historical Society, 1869, page 250
^Calhoon, Robert M. "Loyalism and neutrality" Chapter 29, p. 235. Greene, Jack P. and Pole, J.R. A Companion of the American Revolution (2004)
^Dring, Thomas and Greene, Albert. "Recollections of the Jersey Prison Ship" (American Experience Series, No 8). Applewood Books. November 1, 1986. ISBN978-0-918222-92-3
^Taylor, George. "Martyrs To The Revolution In The British Prison-Ships In The Wallabout Bay." (originally printed 1855) Kessinger Publishing, LLC. October 2, 2007. ISBN978-0-548-59217-5.
^Banks, James Lenox. "Prison ships in the Revolution: New facts in regard to their management." 1903.
^Hawkins, Christopher. "The life and adventures of Christopher Hawkins, a prisoner on board the 'Old Jersey' prison ship during the War of the Revolution." Holland Club. 1858.
^Andros, Thomas. "The old Jersey captive: Or, A narrative of the captivity of Thomas Andros...on board the old Jersey prison ship at New York, 1781. In a series of letters to a friend." W. Peirce. 1833.
^Lang, Patrick J.. "The horrors of the English prison ships, 1776 to 1783, and the barbarous treatment of the American patriots imprisoned on them." Society of the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick, 1939.
^Onderdonk. Henry. "Revolutionary Incidents of Suffolk and Kings Counties; With an Account of the Battle of Long Island and the British Prisons and Prison-Ships at New York." Associated Faculty Press, Inc. June 1970. ISBN978-0-8046-8075-2.
^West, Charles E.. "Horrors of the prison ships: Dr. West's description of the wallabout floating dungeons, how captive patriots fared." Eagle Book Printing Department, 1895.
^Hood, C. 2004, p. 6. Clifton Hood in his essay on New York's Evacuation Day makes the following citation for John Van Arsdale's role in removing the Union Flag and replacing it with the Stars and Stripes: Rivington’s New York Gazette, November 26, 1783; The Independent New-York Gazette, November 29, 1783; Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York to 1898 (New York, 1999): 259–61; Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington: A Biography, v. 5, Victory with the Help of France (New York, 1952): 461; James Thomas Flexner, George Washington, v. 3, In the American Revolution (1775–1783) (Boston, 1967): 522–8. Van Arsdale has sometimes been identified as an Army enlisted man or an Army officer. The flag later joined the historic collection at Scudder's American Museum but was destroyed in a fire in 1865.
^"Church History". www.newutrechtchurch.org. Retrieved August 4, 2018.
^Baker, William S. Itinerary of General Washington from June 15, 1775, to December 23, 1783 (concluded)The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Vol. 15, No. 4 (1891), pages 419–420.
^Rodwan Jr., John G. (November 20, 2010). "No Thanks". Humanist Network News. Archived from the original on August 7, 2011. Retrieved September 11, 2011.
^"The Sunday Advocate (Newark, Ohio)" November 26, 1893,
NEW YORK, Nov As the sun rise guns pealed forth at Fort William. Old Glory was run up to the truce of the city flagstaff at Battery Park on the site where stood the staff to which the British nailed their flag before sailing down the harbor. The British flag was torn down and replaced by the American colors by Van Arsdale, the sailor boy, and the "flag run up by one of his lineal descendants, Christopher R. Forbes, who was assisted by officers of the Anderson Zouaves. The flag was saluted by the guns at Fort William.
New York Times, November 26, 1896,
The day was also celebrated by raising the flag at sunrise at the Battery by Christopher R. Forbes, great-grandson of John Van Arsdale, assisted by the Anderson Zouaves. Sixty-second Regiment, New-York Volunteers. Capt. Charles E. Morse, and Anderson and Williams Post, No. 394, Grand Army of the Republic.
Christopher R. Forbes, who for many years has had the privilege of raising and lowering the flag at the Battery on Evacuation Day and the Fourth of July, and claims that he inherited the right from his great-grandfather, John Van Arsdale, who tore down the British’colors on the spot and hoisted the American flag instead, he feels very sore over the way in which he has been treated by the Park Department. Van Arsdale family members from New York to San Francisco remain aghast. He said last evening:
"Early in June I made an application for permission to raise the flag on the Fourth, and I received a reply from President Clausen, on June 5 giving me permission to participate in the raising of the flag by the employes of the Park Department. Now any tramp can participate in the raising of the flag if he stands by and looks on, and that was the kind of permission that was given to me. If this was not a snub and an insult, I’d like to know what is. When my great-grandfather hauled down the British flag and hoisted the American colors I’d like to know where Mr. Clausen’s great-grandfather was and what he was doing.
Later even this tramp permission was revoked. To-day I received another letter from Mr. Clausen informing, me that instead of my participating with the Park Department employees in hoisting the flag, that ceremony would be performed by the Veteran Corps of Artillery, Military Society of the War of 1812.
"I saw the hand of Asa Bird Gardiner behind all this. He tried to do me out of I my privileges before, and he has succeeded now. The Veteran Corps was really wiped out in 1872 and in 1892 Mr. Gardiner was instrumental in organizing the present one. He wanted me and C. B. Riker to join, but we refused.
In former years the Anderson Post, the Anderson Zouaves, the Anderson Girls, and the Camp Sons of Veterans used to go with me and assist me in the ceremony of raising the flag and now even the tramp permission of participating with employees has been revoked.
I am going to consult with Mr. Riker about this matter and I shall probably be somewhere near the flag raising Wednesday morning. I think they will hear from me before then."
^Heller Anderson, Susan; Carroll, Maurice (November 24, 1983). "New York Day By Day". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 6, 2018. Retrieved August 6, 2018.
