Battle of New York

After the "Boston Seige" as I like to call it some of the troops disbanded and went home. G. Washington was asked my the Continental Congress to defend New York which was the next battle ground for the British.
G. Washington and some of the other leaders thought it was silly trying to even defend the city for several reasons, two being it is a hard place to defend since there is lots of water and serveral islands. This meaning you have to divide your forces and you are wide open for naval attacks.
On to New York they went. The Americans came into the city with a mixed feelings from the citizens, which is the second reason for not defending NY. Most of the city were Loyalists, especially those on Long Island which later became the first battle point.
May people dont realize the conditions of the American soldiers during this battle. First the soldiers were barely 18 or just over. Some of the leaders were older but the main force were in their late teens and early twenties. Most of the original main army in NY came from Connecituct (yay for CT). There were groups of men from MA, PA, MD, NJ there.
The men came into the town and I'm sad to say actually acted like their ages. These farm boys away from home probably for the first time were now in a big city full of booze and women. Naturally you can tell what this lead to. Many rapes and disorderly drunken conducts took place which G. Washington took very seriously and started court martials.
Once they were diciplined and became more orderly these crimes were few. Washington and the other leaders orgainzed them as best they could. They were going into a war with young boys who were farmers and only had experience shooting game and birds. They didnt even have their own uniforms, save a few divisions of men. During the fighting on Long Island and just outside Brooklyn they were ordered by Washington to put a small branch of evergreen on their hats to aid with some type of uniform identy. To give you an idea of how bad this was is a story of 5 scouts sent to stand watch in the Jamacia canyon. They were their waiting when they say a small group of soldiers come. Well natually they fell in with the group thinking they were Americans when they were acutally the lead group of the British army going through the back ungarded way at night to attack.
The British out numbered the Americans 2-1 in troop count. And not to mention that the American soliders were mostly sick with disentary, small pox and other diseases. It is bad because they had no place to go to the bathroom cept holes in the ground. All they did was throw a new layer of dirt over it each day, talk about easy way to get sick...Im getting sick just writing it.
Washington decided to divide his forces on the what is now Manhattan and Brooklyn and on Long Island. When the first attack came to Long Island the Americans held them off for 6 hours and within 6 miles. It was said that the fighting was fierce that soldiers were seen running around beside themselves apologizing and forgiving offenses and so shocked from the sight of dead and wounded. Shortly after that attack naval units and troops were to land on the main land and attack as well but the wind shifted as they were getting close and they couldnt sail forward from Staten Island up the East river in between Brooklyn and Manhattan. The blessing of the wind kept it a land battle.