To have held but to have lost New York, would simply show the defects of
the defence, and the margin wanting in ability to retain, while no less
suggesting how, in turn, it might be regained, at the right time, by
adequate means and methods. The occupation and defence of Brooklyn
Heights was the chief element of value in this direction. It not only
combined the general protection of the city and post, in connection with
the works upon Governor's Island, but to have neglected either would
have admitted an inability to retain either.

British troops at Brooklyn would command New York. American troops at
Brooklyn presented the young nation in the attitude of guarding the
outer doorway of its freshly-asserted independence. It put the British
to the defensive, and compelled them to risk the landing of a large
army, after a protracted ocean voyage, before they could gain a footing
and measure strength with the colonists. It does not lessen our estimate
of the skill of Washington to know that Congress failed to supply
adequate forces; but he made wise estimates, and had reason to expect a
prompt response to his requisitions.

That episode at Breed's Hill, which tested the value of even a light
cover for keen sharpshooters, had so warned Howe of the courage of his
enemy that the garrison of Bunker Hill had never worried Putnam's little
redoubt across the Charlestown Isthmus; neither had the troops at Boston
ever assailed, with success, the thin circumvallation which protected
the besiegers.

At Brooklyn, Washington established ranges for firing-parties, so that
the rifle could be intelligently and effectively used, as the British
might, in turn, approach the danger line. All these preparations,