Which phrase describes the way George Washington kept his small army together during the early years of the American Revolution

As head of the Continental Army, during the early years of the American Revolution Washington decided to retreat rather than to attack. In one of his earliest military actions, the New York campaign (August 1776), he devised a plan that amazed the British army: he took the decision to retreat his defeated troops (9,000 men) safely from their position atop Brooklyn Heights to Manhattan without losing any man. After this event Washington's forces were subsequently defeated in a series of battles, so he decided to retreat his army to Pennsylvania.