 At one point, Washington completely exasperated, threw his hat to the ground, and yelled out, and I quote, are these the men with which I am to defend America? By the end of that battle, the British were firmly in control of a strategically important city. But even worse than that, Washington had lost over 3,000 men. His army was cut into a fraction of what it was, and they had lost a ton of muskets and cannon to the British.