I cannot remember the author's name but he wrote a history of the Battle of Long Island within the last 10 years or so. He was fascinated by the evacuation of the Continental Army from Brooklyn during the course of a single night and, amazingly, without a hitch.
He's convinced this was only possible if the evacuation was conducted along a nearly two-mile stretch of water front running from just down river from what became the navy yard to north of Red Hook. Earlier historians assumed a single embarkation point in the vicinity of Fulton Ferry.
Providence conspired with the colonials by means of a dense fog that hung over the East River the entire night.
I had never heard the two-mile debarkation story...I doubt it because when they left, they had to maintain strict silence (they used muffled oars, for example) for fear of the enemy noting that something was up. It would have been much easier to control the noise by keeping them in a single area.
But, perhaps your historian was right...