This book traces the development of the Revolutionary War in an enjoyable history peppered with excerpts from public and private documents. 1776 was the critical year when Americans reluctantly let go of their strong allegiance to King George III. In July, after more than a year of war, the Continental Congress declared independence from England. The year's events are tracked in this narrative, which is interspersed with eyewitness descriptions and journal accounts that bring the action into focus. After the Continental Army forced the British out of Boston in March, everything seemed to go downhill. A series of morale-draining defeats threatened the very existence of George Washington's army. With the end of the year approaching and enlistments about to expire, and perhaps with them the Revolution itself, Washington concluded, "desperate times require desperate solutions." He led his remnant of an army across the Delaware on Christmas night, and marched through a blizzard to surprise the enemy at Trenton, New Jersey. A lengthy bibliography and a full name index make this a helpful resource for students of the Revolutionary War. Several maps illustrate the battles of Charleston, Long Island, Fort Washington, Trenton and Princeton.
Gregory T. Edgar
(1995), 2005, 5½x8½, paper, index, 442 pp.
ISBN: 9780788401855
101-E0185
