It is doubtful whether there was any necessity whatever for the British to fight the battle of Long Island, as their fleet might have occupied the East River, as it subsequently did, and thus have caged the part of Washington's army which was on Long Island. It is true that the American batteries on Brooklyn Heights and Governor's Island might have done the fleet much damage; but if it was too dangerous to run the gauntlet of the Buttermilk Channel, four fathoms deep, it would have been an easy matter to sail around the eastern end of Long Island, and safely enter the East River from that direction. Had the East River been occupied by the British fleet, it could, while cutting off half of our army from the defence of New York, at the same time have threatened the city front pending the transportation of the British army by water to points above the city from whence to turn either or both flanks of Manhattan Island. Washington, thus shut up, would have been compelled to fight at great disadvantage, and possibly surrender at discretion. Even admitting that the battle of Long Island was necessary, Howe, in dividing his army into three masses, stretching over a line of more than ten miles, ran great risk of being beaten in detail had all of the American forces on the island been concentrated at a central position, ready to be thrown successively upon his isolated columns. It is true the undisciplined American forces might not have been able to cope in the open field with British and German regulars; but Howe had no right to presume their inferiority after his own experience of their good conduct at Bunker Hill and Clinton's trial at Sullivan's Island. The American general also committed a great military blunder in leaving with raw troops the shelter of the Brooklyn intrenchments for the precarious protection of the Long Island Ridge, several important passes in which were left entirely unguarded, though Washington had ordered their careful observation. After the retreat of the American army to New York, Howe wasted two precious weeks, during which Washington had time to organize his defence; and when the British general crossed the East River, he committed a great mistake in debarking at Kip's Bay,—a halfway measure which involved a long land march to his objective, White Plains. Washington, with great vigor, seized his advantage, and, by availing himself of his shorter interior line, arrived first at the coveted position and fortified it. Had Howe moved to this point by water immediately after the battle of Long Island, he undoubtedly would have succeeded in turning Washington's left flank, and would thus have cut off his retreat. The British general's delay of _two months_ after the battle of Long Island in moving less than thirty miles to reach White Plains was inexcusable. In a shorter period Moltke began and ended the campaign of 1866, which so humbled the great power of the Austrian empire.