The beginning of a cascade of defeats 250 years ago that had the American Revolution on life support by December. The year in which this nation began came near to being the year it ended. Trying to defend New York City, outnumbered and in the teeth of British naval supremacy, was military madness and demonstrated that General Washington had quite a lot to learn.
Washington wasn’t a very competent general, but he was no more incompetent than most of his British opponents; moreover, he was of a considerably higher character.
Washington had a capacity to learn from his mistakes which served him well as a general. He could also inspire men to endure suffering for the cause of American Independence which allowed him to always maintain in existence an army that operated on less than a shoe string.
The revolution would have endured until Freedom was achieved.