Washington's Crossing Chapter Summary & Analysis - The Fall of New York Summary

The Fall of New York Summary and Analysis

During the summer of 1776, a sickness tore through the troops that worked against the Americans. They lost large amounts of troops as a result. The Americans displayed their lack of training and discipline in many ways. One important way was how they kept their lodgings. They did so in disarray and left it constantly soiled. Another big issue was the Americans' lack of intelligence. The methods they used in Boston did not work well in New York. Washington and other officers made costly mistakes as a result.

This lack of intelligence created a lot of confusion and resulted in many errors. One of these mistakes cost the Americans the battle of Long Island that August. Washington had false reports that the British were holding back most of their troops. He believed that only twenty five percent of the British forces were on Long Island when in fact it was...
(read more)