Boys as young as fourteen fought in George Washington's army during the American Revolution. It was a ragged and unpaid little army most of the time. It was often a beaten army in battles against larger forces of the King's redcoats.
But it wouldn't stay beaten. And in the end it won American independence in an eight-year war against the world's most powerful empire of that day.
This is the inspiring story of that army and its greathearted leader, George Washington. It is the story of retreat from New York. It is the story of the crossing of the ice-choked Delaware River on Christmas night, 1776. It is the story of Valley Forge and bloody footprints in the snow. It is the story of Lord Cornwallis surrendering his whole British army to Washington and Rochambeau at Yorktown. It is the story of the birth of a nation on the battlefield.
As a historian, Lynn Montross has written about the nation's first war and last—the American Revolution and the Korean conflict. He learned about war from experience in World War I as a twice-wounded young infantry soldier in France. The author of two previous books about the Revolution, he has read many personal diaries by soldiers as well as the official documents. Not satisfied with historical sources only, he has spent hours walking over such old battlefields as Bennington, Saratoga, and Yorktown.
—from the dust jacket
Lynn Montross is recognized as one of the best-informed historians ever to write on the American Revolution. Had he been an officer on Washington's staff he could scarcely have reported with greater clarity on the major battles of our War for Independence. The present authentic narrative takes us from the appointment of George Washington to the post of Commander-in-chief, through all the years of peril and conflict, hope and despair, heartbreak and heroism to the decisive victory at Yorktown, and the demobilization of the army. Here is a book of courage and devotion that should inspire and delight American citizens from eleven to eighty.
Sterling North
General Editor
—from the book.
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