In their wake, General George Washington triumphantly led the Continental Army from his headquarters north of the city across the Harlem River, and south through Manhattan to the Battery at its southern tip.

[1] Following the significant losses at the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776, General George Washington and the Continental Army retreated across the East River by benefit of both a retreat and holding action by well-trained Maryland Line troops at Gowanus Creek and Canal and a night fog which obscured the barges and boats evacuating troops to Manhattan Island.

[3] 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.

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.

[24] 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.

It concluded with thirteen toasts, according to a contemporary account in Rivington's Gazette, the company drinking to:[26] The morning after, Washington had a public breakfast meeting with Hercules Mulligan, which helped dispel suspicions about the tailor and spy.

[32][33] 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.

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.

[38] Public celebrations were first held on the fourth anniversary in 1787, with the city's garrison performing a dress review and feu de joie, and in the context of a Federalist push for constitutional ratification following the Philadelphia Convention.

[53] 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.

[57][32] 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.

[65] On Evacuation Day 1864, the Booth brothers held a performance of Julius Caesar at the Winter Garden Theatre to raise funds for the Shakespeare statue later placed in Central Park.

That same day, Confederate saboteurs attempted to burn down the city, lighting an adjoining building on fire and for a time disturbing the performance.

As part of Evacuation Day celebrations in 1883 (on November 26), a statue of George Washington was unveiled in front of what is now Federal Hall National Memorial.

[71] 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.

"[74] David Van Arsdale had died in November 1883 just before the centennial,[75] having helped revive the event the year previous,[76] and he was succeeded by his grandson.

[80] In the early 20th century, the 161-foot flagpole used was the mast of the 1901 America's Cup defender Constitution[81][82][83] designed by Herreshoff, replacing a wooden pole struck by lightning in 1909.

[84] 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.

[92] The Sons of the Revolution fraternal organization continues to hold an annual 'Evacuation Day Dinner' at Fraunces Tavern, and giving the thirteen toasts from 1783.

[93][94] Though little celebrated in the previous century, the 225th anniversary of Evacuation Day was commemorated on November 25, 2008, with searchlight displays in New Jersey and New York at key high points.

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.

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.

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, a part of the New York based Military Society of the War of 1812.