Despite having little experience in commanding large, conventional
military forces, Washington’s strong leadership presence and fortitude
held the American military together long enough to secure victory at
Yorktown and independence for his new nation.
Unlike the successful Siege of Boston, the efforts to defend the city of
New York ended in near disaster for the Continental Army and the cause
of independence.
In what proved to be the largest battle of the
Revolutionary War in terms of total combatants, Washington’s forces on
August 22, 1776, were flanked out of their positions atop the Gowanus
Heights (part of today’s modern Brooklyn) and soundly defeated by
William Howe's roughly 20,000 man force on Long Island.
It was during these dark days at the close of 1776 that Thomas Paine’s words from the recently published American Crisis rang most true:
“These are the times that try men’s souls…the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
