Free King George by Steve Sheinkin

and yank it down to the ground. They even had an idea of how to reuse the statue’s four thousand pounds of metal. “The lead we hear is to be run up into musket balls for the use of the Yankees,” said a soldier named Isaac Bangs.
    But General Washington knew he would need a lot more than a fancy declaration and bullets from a statue. The British army was about to begin a massive attack in New York. And Washington had no idea how he was going to stop it. He warned his men, “The eyes of all our countrymen are now upon us. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army … we have therefore to resolve to conquer or die.”
    No pressure, guys. Just save your country—or die trying.

Losing and Retreating in ’76
    Sixteen-year-old Joseph Plumb Martin still hadn’t made up his mind. Was today the day he would enlist in the Continental army? “I thought I was as warm a Patriot as the best of them,” Martin said. On the other hand, he wasn’t exactly sure he was ready to risk getting shot. “I felt myself to be a real coward,”he admitted.

    Expect a Bloody Summer
    J oseph Plumb Martin walked up to the table where a Continental army officer was seated. A bunch of Martin’s friends were standing around the table, trying to get their courage up.
    â€œCome—if you will enlist, I will,” said one friend to another.
    â€œYou have long been talking about it.” was the reply. “Come, now is the time.”
    Martin sat down at the table. The officer handed him enlistment papers and a pen. Martin dipped the pen in ink. He continued going back and forth in his mind … and then he signed his name.
    Martin left his home in Connecticut and sailed to New York City to join George Washington’s army. He began exercising and training. And he began eating army food. The flour-and-water biscuits were especially bad. “They were hard enough to break the teeth of a rat,” Martin remembered.
    Meanwhile, George Washington had troubles of his own. Washington had about 19,000 soldiers in New York. Most of them were like young Joseph—willing to fight, but totally inexperienced in battle. The British, on the other hand, had 32,000 well-trained troops. That included about 8,000 of those rented Germans, who were famously fierce fighters.
    Washington knew he was in trouble. “We expect a very bloody summer at New York,” he wrote to his brother. The general strapped two pistols to his belt and warned his men to stay ready. “I will not ask any man to go further than I do,” he told them. “I will fight so long as I have a leg or an arm.”
    The soldiers slept in their uniforms, guns by their sides.
    The British Are Coming!
    T he British attack came on August 22, a beautiful summer day in New York. Thousands of British and German soldiers poured off their boats and started marching toward the American forts on Long Island.
    On their way to battle, British soldiers passed rows of apple trees, the branches bending with ripe, red fruit. This was too tempting a sight for guys who had been stuck aboard ships for months, eating salty, rotting ship food—so they stopped to pick and eat apples. Then they got right back to the attack.
    Soon the soldiers approached the small village of Flatbush. And, as you might expect, the people of Flatbush began to panic. “Women and children were running hither and thither,” said a sixteen-year-old girl named Femmetia. “Men on horseback were riding about in all directions.” Femmetia looked down the street and saw the doors of the red schoolhouse fly open. “The boys rushed out with a shout,” she said. No more school today!
    Then Femmetia helped her mother and sister load everything they could carry into a wagon:

    â€œMy sister and I were all excitement, rushing wildly about the house and bringing the most useless things … . to