The battle of Long Island a brittish field after their defeat in that siege general George Washington guessed that they would head south and try to take new york. Therefore, he and his army went there and prepared for the brittish to attack. As it turns out, the brittish had in fact gone North to Halifax, Nova Scotia. They reached the Hudson River on June 29,1776, and on July 3, brittish general William Howe arrived on stanton Island. The next July 4, 1776 was the day that the Americans Continetal congress anouuced the independense of America.