Shh-boom! Boom! Goes the cannon, watch the blood and the shit spray and … Boom! Goes the cannon, we’re abandoning Kips Bay and… Boom! There’s another ship and … Boom! We just lost the southern tip and… Boom!
Lin-Manuel Miranda
When the British landed ships at Kip’s Bay (on the island of Manhattan), they were able to further their successful campaign to capture New York City. The Continental army was forced to retreat from the lower half (southern tip) of the island, going farther up towards Harlem Heights. During this period there were many skirmishes, some of which put George Washington in close proximity to the British forces. These battles would have been bloody and messy as the song suggests.
Sources: the following sources were used - the collected letters/writings of Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton the Revolution, Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton by Allan McLane Hamilton, Hamilton by Richard Syllia, and Charles Cerami’s book called Young Patriots.
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