Washington was on the brink of retreating from New York City, but he was getting pushback from some of his generals regarding how it should be done.

Fortunately for him, this Gordian Knot was cut by a letter arriving from John Hancock on behalf of the Continental Congress.

Nathanael Green and William Heath weren’t necessarily in agreement with Hancock’s recommendations, but orders are orders and everyone prepared to move out based on those.

But about a week later, something happened to render part of those orders moot.

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