Congress agreed that the recognition of his rank was necessary.
There was nothing to do but to go on with the fight.

Washington's army held the city of New York, at the southerly
point of Manhattan Island. The Hudson River, separating the
island from the mainland of New Jersey on the west, is at its
mouth two miles wide. The northern and eastern sides of the
island are washed by the Harlem River, flowing out of the Hudson
about a dozen miles north of the city, and broadening into the
East River, about a mile wide where it separates New York from
Brooklyn Heights, on Long Island. Encamped on Staten Island, on
the south, General Howe could, with the aid of the fleet, land at
any of half a dozen vulnerable points. Howe had the further
advantage of a much larger force. Washington had in all some
twenty thousand men, numbers of them serving for short terms and
therefore for the most part badly drilled. Howe had twenty-five
thousand well-trained soldiers, and he could, in addition, draw
men from the fleet, which would give him in all double the force
of Washington.

In such a situation even the best skill of Washington was likely
only to qualify defeat. He was advised to destroy New York and
retire to positions more tenable. But even if he had so desired,
Congress, his master, would not permit him to burn the city, and
he had to make plans to defend it. Brooklyn Heights so commanded
New York that enemy cannon planted there would make the city
untenable. Accordingly Washington placed half his force on Long
Island to defend Brooklyn Heights and in doing so made the
fundamental error of cutting his army in two and dividing it by
an arm of the sea in presence of overwhelming hostile naval