Evacuation Day: New York’s Forgotten Independence Celebration

Everyone recognizes the date July 4, 1776, the day the Declaration of Independence was formally approved and adopted, but you might not know that for well over a century New Yorkers celebrated a completely different day as a second Independence Day. On November 25, 1783, George Washington marched into Manhattan on the heels of the final British military withdrawal from American soil. This was considered the de facto end of the war, and it was, and still is, known as Evacuation Day.

The Continental Army Enters Manhattan as the British Withdraw

After the Treaty of Paris was signed in September 1783, the British still occupied New York City, their final foothold in the new United States. Throughout the fall, George Washington corresponded with the British commander in New York, General Sir Guy Carleton, to plan an orderly withdrawal. Carleton wanted to wait until enough ships were ready to carry away the last 6000 British troops and the thousands of Loyalists fleeing the city.

On the morning of November 25, 1783, the British fleet began to sail from the harbor. As their rear guard marched out through the Battery to the awaiting transport ships, a small contingent of Continental troops and American dignitaries advanced down Broadway from Harlem. With Washington were New York Governor George Clinton, Generals Henry Knox and Benjamin Lincoln, and Major Benjamin Tallmadge, Washington’s spymaster in New York. 

The largely Patriot crowd (most Loyalists having already evacuated) lined the streets to cheer the returning army after seven years of occupation. By midday, the final British soldiers had boarded their ships, and the Americans reached the southern tip of Manhattan just in time to see them off.

The Beginning and the End of the Revolution in New York

A few blocks north, at Bowling Green, the Revolution had begun seven years earlier when patriots tore down the statue of King George III after hearing the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence near today’s City Hall Park. When the Americans marched past that spot on November 25, 1783, the symbolism was unmistakable. The Revolution that began for New Yorkers in protest at Bowling Green ended in triumph at the Battery.

However, the Americans still had one more challenge ahead of them. As the procession reached the Battery, they found the Union Jack still flying. What’s more, as a final act of defiance before sailing away the departing soldiers had greased the flagpole and cut the halyards making it impossible to lower.

It probably wasn’t lost on anyone that long before the king’s statue came down, patriots had been raising Liberty Poles as a public declaration of their rights. British soldiers saw these acts as open defiance and tore down the poles again and again. Each time, the Sons of Liberty put up another, and they often greased them to make it harder for the soldiers to pull down.

According to tradition, a New Yorker and Continental Army veteran named John Van Arsdale climbed the greased mast using hammered-in cleats, and raised the Stars and Stripes for the first time over a liberated Manhattan.

A week later, on December 4, 1783, Washington and his officers gathered at Fraunces Tavern on Pearl Street, a Sons of Liberty meeting place before the war, to say goodbye. Legend has it that those in attendance raised 13 toasts, one for each of the rebellious colonies. This farewell gathering, a kind of Thanksgiving feast, was Washington’s final act as Commander in Chief of the army, but not the last time the victory would be celebrated in New York.

From Evacuation Day to Thanksgiving

For much of the 19th century, Evacuation Day stood among New York’s major civic holidays. Parades marched up Broadway from Bowling Green to City Hall Park, militia units fired salutes at the Battery, historical societies hosted banquets and public toasts, and schools closed for the occasion. Newspapers routinely referred to November 25 as the city’s “other Independence Day.”

But as the 19th century went on, Evacuation Day steadily lost ground. Thanksgiving became a national holiday in 1863 and soon dominated the same week on the calendar. After the Civil War the city sought warmer ties with Britain and municipal leaders preferred nationally unifying holidays over regional ones. New York’s growing immigrant population had little connection to the local Revolutionary anniversary.

Within a generation, large-scale organized celebrations of Evacuation Day had all but disappeared. A few small ceremonies still take place each November 25 at Bowling Green and around town, but nothing close to the parades and citywide festivities that once marked the day the American War for Independence finally ended for New York.

Evacuation Day History Where It Happened

The layers of Revolutionary Manhattan are still there if you know where to look. Although the streets look different than they did in 1783, the surviving landmarks and stories make it possible to trace the city’s steps toward independence. If you’d like to explore these places in person, join me on the tour, a small-group walk through the oldest blocks in the city where independence finally became real for New York.