One fine Thursday morning in August of 1776, about 4000 British troops, led by General Henry Clinton and General George Cornwallis, landed at Gravesend Bay in Brooklyn. By the end of the day, their number had swelled to over 16,000.

George Washington’s problem was that he only heard about the initial 4000 later that day and decided that his guess regarding any invasion of Brooklyn was little more than a feint. Washington was no fool, but he was definitely wrong about this one.

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