Red Lion Inn (Brooklyn)

In the early morning hours of August 27, 1776, the first shots of the Battle of Brooklyn were fired here when British troops under Major General James Grant encountered American pickets stationed at the Red Lion.

Samuel Holden Parsons a lawyer from Connecticut who had secured a commission in the Continental Army and was recently promoted to Brigadier General was Field Officer of the Day.

He and Colonel Samuel John Atlee of Pennsylvania, a veteran of the French and Indian War were stationed further north on the Gowanus Road.

The two colonels roused from their sleep by the sound of musket fire managed to intercept some of the troops fleeing from the British at the Red Lion and form them into a skirmish line.

Other British forces under General Charles Earl Cornwallis and Hessians under General Leopold Philip de Heister were already in Stirling's rear and his force began to come apart as they encountered other American units fleeing west over the fields and along the Port Road to cross the Gowanus marshes to the safety of the main American defensive line at Brooklyn.