The Battle of Long Island was one of the largest engagements in the Revolutionary War, and it resulted in a devastating loss of troops for the Continental Army. This paper will demonstrate that if General Washington had made different use of the intelligence assets available to him, the outcome of the Battle of Long Island would have changed. However, if the Continental Army had made better choices with its intelligence assets, it might have led to victory on Long Island but defeat in the overall campaign.
The Background of Battle of Long Island
In the summer of 1776, the colonists forced the British to evacuate Boston. The British Army then settled on New York City as the key to retaking the colonies. Two brothers, General William Howe and Admiral Richard Howe arrived at the mouth of New York Harbor with a fleet carrying over 30,000 troops. In response, General Washington moved his own army from Boston to New York City. Washington had only 20,000 troops with which to defend the Island of Manhattan. He was forced to split them up to cover all possible British approaches, as he did not have accurate information about British …show more content…
General Washington was one of the first commanders in the Revolutionary War to use cavalry as scouts. Traditional cavalry maneuvers were impractical in the heavily wooded terrain of the thirteen colonies. Washington quickly realized the effectiveness of utilizing cavalry units as scouts, since they could move faster and cover more ground than dismounted troops. In the Continental Army, cavalry or “dragoons” as they were sometimes called, were mostly volunteers who used their own gear, weapons, and horses. Two common factors were true for most cavalry: they normally armed themselves with sabers, and their greatest weakness was the constant need to find food for their horses (Moran,