The summer of 1776 was supposed to be the season when everything changed. On July 4, the delegates in Philadelphia had declared to the world that the thirteen colonies were no longer subjects of King George III, but free and independent states. The ink was barely dry when George Washington found himself staring across New York Harbor at the largest armada the British Empire had ever assembled. Thousands of redcoats and Hessians, backed by one of the most powerful navies in the world, were bearing down on a force of farmers, mechanics, and merchants trying to pass themselves off as soldiers. The Battle of Long Island, fought on August 27, would be the first great test of the new United States. It would also be the largest battle of the war. And it would end in disaster, a defeat so crushing that only a miracle kept the Revolution alive.