Cornered on Long Island

• After the many colonial successes around Boston, the King sent 30,000 troops to New York in the summer of 1776, to quickly end the rebellion. This included some hired German mercenaries: Hessians, the most feared soldiers on the planet. The landing was massive; something like D-Day. This would be the largest battle of the entire war.

• This is less than two months after the Declaration of Independence.

• Consider this animated image of what happened after the landing. The Americans are blue; the British are red; the German Hessians are purple

• At the end of the day, the Continental Army was cornered. Tens of thousands of the enemy were to the south and the East River was to the north. They didn't have enough boats or time to cross the river, and even if they did they would be easy targets during the crossing.

DECISION: You are Washington. What do you do?

Click here to see what happened?