The Cemetery of the Evergreens occupies a site critical to the Battle of Brooklyn near the intersection of today’s Broadway and Jamaica Avenue, where Howard’s Tavern stood at the easternmost of only four passes through the wooded heights along Brooklyn’s spine. On the night of August 26, 1776, a British force of about 14,000 moved silently along The Kings Highway to encircle the American defenders, forcing Howard and his son to guide them by an obscure trail, still visible in the cemetery, around the pass to the road leading to Bedford Village. At daybreak on August 27, the British swept down the road from Bedford to strike the American positions from behind while a second force of redcoats and Hessians attacked the front of the American line, routing the Americans and driving them back to the safety of Brooklyn Heights.