HOWARD'S TAVERN & GENERAL HOWE

	William HOWARD (to General HOWE): "We belong to the other side, general,
and can't serve you against our duty."

	General HOWE: "You have no alternative. If you refuse, I shall have you 
shot through the head."

	A guard burst open the door of the bar-room in William HOWARD'S
Tavern at two-o'clock on the morning of the 26th of August, 1776.
The early guests were Sir William HOWE, Lord PERCY, 
Marquis CORNWALLIS, and Sir Henry CLINTON. 16,000 British soldiers, 
who had lain for several days at Flatbush, were halted in front 
of the tavern, waiting to be led over the Rockaway Path, in order 
that they might outflank the Americans who, the enemy thought, 
were hidden along the Jamaica road.

	Genera1 HOWE had selected William HOWARD, tavern-keeper, as 
his guide. The conversation, later recorded by Major William HOWARD, 
the son, follows. 
He was then a little fellow, and a soldier had awakened him. Going into 
the bar-room, he saw his father standing in one corner, hemmed in by 
soldiers with their muskets and bayonets fixed. General HOWE wore a 
camlet cloak over his uniform. At the bar he called for a glass of liquor.

	"I must have some of you show me over the Rockaway Path around 
the Pass," he said. 

	"We belong to the other side, general, and can't serve you against 
our duty," quietly responded William HOWARD.

	"That is all right. Stick to your country or stick to your principles, 
but, HOWARD, you are my prisoner, and must guide my men over the hill."

	"But, You have no alternative," silenced the general. "If you refuse,
I shall have you shot through the head."

	William HOWARD, accompanied by his son, set out in the early 
morning across the hills. They and their house were placed under 
a strong guard. Orders were given that none escape. Every house 
in the neighborhood was similarly protected. Through the wooded 
hills, father and son led the British army, and at the end of the 
march, on reaching a turn in the Jamaica road, "my father and myself," 
continues the narrator, "were released and sent back to the tavern, 
which we found surrounded by the guard." 

	HOWARD's Tavern, known by many as the Half-way House and the 
Rising Sun Tavern, formerly stood at the junction of the Jamaica and
Bedford turnpikes. It was sold in 1867, and to-day on the site are 
car depots and shops in the Eastern District of Brooklyn.



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