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Bunker Hill tells the story of the Boston battle that ignited the American Revolution. With passion and insight, Philbrick reconstructs the revolutionary landscape—geographic and ideological—in a mesmerizing narrative of the robust, messy, blisteringly real origins of America. It would be the bloodiest battle of the Revolution to come, and the point of no return for the rebellious colonists
A vivid, exciting account of the largest battle of the American Revolution. “In his shot-by-shot account of the largest and bloodiest battle of the American Revolution, Gallagher recreates the fierce encounter of 27 August 1776 in which twenty thousand British, Hessian and Loyalist troops defeated ten thousand patriot soldiers. . . . the book offers many perceptive observations and the author succinctly summarizes the lessons derived . . . this book is recommended reading for those who cherish the heritage of the gallant ‘rabble in arms’ that risked all for American independence.”
A brilliant account of the proud and ferocious American fighters who stood up to the British forces in savage battles crucial in deciding both the fate of the Carolina colonies and the outcome of the war. A tense, exciting historical account of a little known chapter of the Revolution, displaying history writing at its best. His compelling narrative brings readers closer than ever before to the reality of Revolutionary warfare. Buchanan makes the subject come alive. He offers a lively, accurate account of a critical period in the War of Independence in the South.
A Devil of a Whipping, The Battle of Cowpens
The battle of Cowpens was a crucial turning point in the Rev. War in the South and stands as perhaps the finest American tactical demonstration of the entire war. On 17 Jan. 1781, Daniel Morgan’s force of Continental troops and militia routed British regulars and Loyalists under the command of Banastre Tarleton. The victory helped put the British army on the road to the Yorktown surrender and, ultimately, cleared the way for American independence.
Battles of Kings Mountain & Cowpens
From the rocky slopes of Kings Mountain to the plains of Hannah’s Cowpens, the Carolina back-country hosted two of the Revolutionary War’s most critical battles. The Battle of Kings Mountain utilized guerrilla techniques―American Over Mountain Men wearing buckskin and hunting shirts and armed with hunting rifles attacked Loyalist troops from behind trees. The Battle of Cowpens saw a different strategy but a similar outcome: American victory. Using firsthand accounts and careful analysis of the best classic and modern scholarship on the subject, historian Robert Brown demonstrates how the combination of both battles facilitated the downfall of General Charles Cornwallis and led to the Patriot victory at Yorktown.
New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming creates a dramatic, moving depiction of the Siege of Yorktown – the days in October 1781 that ended the American Revolution and changed the world. Along with French General Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau, George Washington made an astonishing march through New Jersey and trapped British General Charles Cornwallis and his forces in Yorktown, Virginia, where they unleashed a tremendous artillery assault, with the support of the French navy. But victory was never certain, and both sides made a series of bold attacks and counterattacks, with Washington the unlikely winner.
1777 Tipping Point at Saratoga
In the autumn of 1777, near Saratoga, New York, an inexperienced and improvised American army led by General Horatio Gates faced off against the highly trained British and German forces led by General John Burgoyne. The British strategy in confronting the Americans in upstate New York was to separate rebellious New England from the other colonies. Despite inferior organization and training, the Americans exploited access to fresh reinforcements of men and materiel, and ultimately handed the British a stunning defeat. The American victory, for the first time in the war, confirmed that independence from Great Britain was all but inevitable. Assimilating the archaeological remains from the battlefield along with the many letters, journals, and memoirs of the men and women in both camps, Dean Snow’s 1777 provides a richly detailed narrative of the two battles fought at Saratoga over the course of thirty-three tense and bloody days.
In the summer of 1777 (twelve months after the Declaration of Independence) the British launched an invasion from Canada under General John Burgoyne. It was the campaign that was supposed to end the rebellion, but it resulted in a series of battles that changed America’s history and that of the world. Stirring narrative history, skillfully told through the perspective of those who fought in the campaign, Saratoga brings to life as never before the inspiring story of Americans who did their utmost in what seemed a lost cause, achieving what proved to be the crucial victory of the Revolution.
The #1 New York Times bestselling book for many weeks, Jack Levin presents a beautifully designed account of George Washington’s historic crossing of the Delaware River and the decisive Battle of Trenton. Jack E. Levin illuminates a profound turning point of the American Revolution: the decisive Battle of Trenton and its prelude—General George Washington leading his broken and ailing troops in a fleet of small wooden boats across the ice-encased Delaware River. Jack Levin brings to light several vital perspectives, and draws his text from General Washington’s letter to the Continental Congress to describe the amazing account of the unlikely defeat of the Hessian army at Trenton.
In the fall of 1776 the British delivered a crushing blow to the Revolutionary War efforts. New York fell and the anguished retreat through New Jersey followed. Winter came with a vengeance, bringing what Thomas Paine called “the times that try men’s souls.” The Winter Soldiers is the story of a small band of men held together by George Washington in the face of disaster and hopelessness, desperately needing at least one victory to salvage both cause and country. Richard M. Ketchum tells the tale of unimaginable hardship and suffering that culminated in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. Without these triumphs, the American Revolution that had begun so bravely could not have gone on.
Victory or Death – The Battles of Trenton & Princeton
December 1776: Just six months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, George Washington and the new American Army sit on the verge of utter destruction by the banks of the Delaware River. The despondent and demoralized group of men had endured repeated defeats and now were on the edge of giving up hope. Washington feared “the game is pretty near up.” Rather than submit to defeat, Washington and his small band of soldiers crossed the ice-choked Delaware River and attacked the Hessian garrison at Trenton, New Jersey on the day after Christmas. He followed up the surprise attack with successful actions along the Assunpink Creek and at Princeton. In a stunning military campaign, Washington had turned the tables, and breathed life into the dying cause for liberty during the Revolutionary War.
George C. Daughan’s magnificently detailed account of the Battle of Lexington and Concord challenges the prevailing narrative of the American War of Independence. It was, Daughan argues, based as much in economic concerns as political ones. When Massachusetts militiamen turned out in overwhelming numbers to fight the British, they believed they were fighting for their farms and livelihoods, as well as for liberty. A key factor in the outcome of this historic battle was the scorn British officers had for colonial fighters. Although the British officers had fought alongside colonial Americans in the ferocious French and Indian War, they failed to anticipate the skill, organization, and sheer numbers of the colonial militias. Daughan explains how British arrogance led them to defeat at the hands of motivated, experienced patriot fighters determined to protect their way of life. Authoritative and immersive, Lexington and Concord gives us a new understanding of a battle that became a template for colonial uprisings in later centuries.
In September 1775, eleven hundred soldiers boarded ships in Newburyport, bound for the Maine wilderness. They were American colonists who had volunteered for a secret mission to paddle and march nearly two hundred miles through some of the wildest country in the colonies and seize the fortress city of Quebec, the last British stronghold in Canada. The march, under the command of Colonel Benedict Arnold, proved to be a tragic journey. Before they reached the outskirts of Quebec, hundreds died from hypothermia, drowning, small pox, lightning strikes, exposure, and starvation. The survivors ate dogs, shoes, clothing, leather, cartridge boxes, shaving soap, and lip salve. Their trek toward Quebec was nearly twice the length shown on their maps. The rains fell in such torrents that their boats floated off or sunk, taking their meager provisions along, and then it began to snow. Finally, in the midst of a raging blizzard, those remaining attacked Quebec.
In August 1776, General George Washington’s young army faced off against over 20,000 British and Hessian soldiers at the Battle of Brooklyn. This was the largest battle of the Revolution, and for the Americans, outmanned and outmaneuvered, it was almost the end of the war, as well. Maryland only had one Continental Regiment. But it fielded the largest, best equipped, fully uniformed, and among the best to take the field. Each carried a fine flintlock musket with bayonet, a rarity among Washington’s army. And on one fateful day, August 27, 1776, six of the ten companies, four hundred boys, from among the finest families of Maryland, rose among the immortals and charged with bayonets, six times, outnumbered against the most professional army on earth. They did so to hold back the British and allow hundreds of their fellow soldiers escape. They did so with nearly 300 killed, and nearly all who survived, wounded and taken prisoner. A sacrifice forever engraved in our nation’s history.
Fatal Sunday – Battle of Monmouth
Historians have long considered the Battle of Monmouth one of the most complicated engagements of the American Revolution. Fought on Sunday, June 28, 1778, Monmouth was critical to the success of the Revolution. It also marked a decisive turning point in the military career of George Washington. The Battle of Monmouth constituted a pivotal moment in the War for Independence. Lender and Stone show how the general’s partisans, determined that the battle for public opinion would be won in his favor, engineered a propaganda victory for their chief that involved the spectacular court-martial of Major General Charles Lee, the second-ranking officer of the Continental Army. Replete with poignant anecdotes, folkloric incidents, and stories of heroism and combat brutality; filled with behind-the-scenes action and intrigue; and teeming with characters from all walks of life, Fatal Sunday gives us the definitive view of the fateful Battle of Monmouth.
In the early stages of the American Revolution, America’s best general and future traitor, Benedict Arnold, risked all when he built a navy – America’s first – and halted England’s advance down Lake Champlain. In a desperate battle in which most of his ships were lost, Arnold succeeded in halting the British surge south which could have split the colonies in half. Washington was struggling to stop General Howe’s march up from New York City. Had Arnold failed, and the two British forces ultimately met, it is quite possible that America would have lost the war. This book provides new information about the Battle of Valcour Island which took place on Lake Champlain in October of 1776. It contains a biography of sixteen of the seventeen captains of the American vessels that were in the battle. No such comprehensive information has been published before. It includes first hand accounts from pension applications, journals, and memoirs plus a never before published roster of 448 officers and men who participated in the battle on the American side.
Battles of Kings Mountain & Cowpens
From the rocky slopes of Kings Mountain to the plains of Hannah’s Cowpens, the Carolina back-country hosted two of the Revolutionary War’s most critical battles. The Battle of Kings Mountain utilized guerrilla techniques―American Over Mountain Men wearing buckskin and hunting shirts and armed with hunting rifles attacked Loyalist troops from behind trees. The Battle of Cowpens saw a different strategy but a similar outcome: American victory. Using firsthand accounts and careful analysis of the best classic and modern scholarship on the subject, historian Robert Brown demonstrates how the combination of both battles facilitated the downfall of General Charles Cornwallis and led to the Patriot victory at Yorktown.
The turning point of the Revolutionary War gets a lavish treatment here, with a thorough battlefield account amplified by a detailed cast of participants, a time line, and notes on weaponry, battleships, and uniforms. Capturing the drama of the events without being exploitative, Ferrie describes the relentless shelling of Yorktown and the grudging surrender of Cornwallis, who refused to attend the surrender ceremony. The high level of detail will rivet military buffs. Readers will come away with a picture of eighteenth-century warfare as a plodding, gritty affair, very different from the high-tech conflicts they see on TV. They will also find a more authentic view of George Washington, a reluctant leader turned popular hero, whose shining successes in battle were outnumbered by his failures. Period engravings are scattered throughout, and there are black-and-white maps, though small type and dense shading affect their clarity.
Historical fiction at its best. 1781 – Washington and his army have spent three years in a bitter stalemate. At last he learns that the French have committed a fleet to the American coast and that British General Cornwallis has decided to withdraw into Yorktown. Washington decides an audacious move and will force march nearly his entire army more than three hundred miles south. He must pray that the French navy is successful in blockading Chesapeake Bay so that he can lay siege to Cornwallis and capture his entire force. The stalemate must be broken otherwise the American spirit will crumble. American Sergeant Peter Wellsley is tasked with neutralizing any loyalists who might provide warning On the other side Allen Van Dorn receives bits and pieces of reports that something is afoot. When one of the former friends is captured, and during the heat of the Battle of Yorktown, both must decide where their true loyalties lie. Join bestselling authors Gingrich and Forstchen as Washington’s professional army, once a rabble in arms, will execute the war’s most decisive contest.
A Gallant Defense – Siege of Charlestown 1780
In 1779 Sir Henry Clinton and more than eight thousand British troops left the waters of New York, seeking to capture the colonies’ most important southern port, Charleston, South Carolina. Clinton and his officers believed that victory in Charleston would change both the seat of the war and its character. In this comprehensive study of the 1780 siege and surrender of Charleston, Carl P. Borick offers a full examination of the strategic and tactical elements of Clinton’s operations. Borick examines the reasons for the shift in British strategy, the efforts of their army and navy, and the difficulties the patriots faced as they defended the city. He explores the roles of key figures in the campaign, including Benjamin Lincoln, William Moultrie, and Lord Charles Cornwallis. Borick relies on an impressive array of primary and secondary sources relating to the siege and includes maps that depict the British approach to the city and the complicated military operations that led to the patriots’ greatest defeat of the American Revolution.
The Surprise of Germantown, October 4, 1777
After the American loss at the Battle of Brandywine Creek, Washington moved his army north west of Philadelphia, relinquishing the city to British control. The Fox, as British officers began to call the American commander, did not remain long in camp. Early on the morning of October 4th, in a brash move against superior forces, Washington surprised the British. He launched an offensive attack on Howe’s forces. Encased in fog, the Americans drove the British before them. Later scholars argued that Washington would probably have driven his opponent clear to the outskirts of Philadelphia it were not for a company of stubborn British infantry. They barricaded themselves in a large stone structure known as the Cliveden House. The Americans stalled their advance to pound the building with artillery. Shot bounced off the thick walls. Several attempts to storm the building also ended in failure. The delay afforded Howe time to bring up fresh troops and thwart any further advance by the Americans, causing Washington to order a retreat.
The Invasion of Canada by the Americas
The Invasion of Canada by the Americans, 1775–1776 offers two significant, insightful, and intriguing first-hand accounts of the Revolutionary War. These previously untranslated and unpublished primary sources provide contrasting viewpoints from a Loyalist French-Canadian administrative official, Jean-Baptiste Badeaux, and a Patriot Continental officer, William Goforth. Compelling personal interactions with friends and neighbors, and local and provincial-level leaders—as occupier and occupied—are documented. Their stories climax during the two-month period in early 1776 when Goforth was military governor of Three Rivers and Badeaux served as his somewhat reluctant interpreter and unofficial advisor. Including their experiences with Benedict Arnold and Quebec’s Governor Guy Carleton, as well as letters to Benjamin Franklin and John Jay, this unique book provides diverse insights into the invasion of Canada and its immediate impact on the people on both sides of the revolution.
A brilliant American combat officer and this country’s most famous traitor, Benedict Arnold is one of the most fascinating and complicated people to emerge from American history. Benedict Arnold’s Army covers a largely unknown but important period of Arnold’s life. Award-winning author Arthur Lefkowitz provides important insights into Arnold’s character during the earliest phase of his military career, showing his aggressive nature, need for recognition, experience as a competitive businessman, and his obsession with honor that started him down the path to treason. Lefkowitz extensively researched Arnold’s 1775 winter expedition to Quebec and made numerous trips along the same route that Arnold’s army took. Benedict Arnold’s Army also contains a closing chapter with detailed information and maps for readers who wish to follow the expedition’s route from the coast of Maine to Quebec City. The Arnold Expedition as told through Benedict Arnold’s Army is one of the greatest adventure stories in American history.
On August 16, 1777, a motley militia won a resounding victory near Bennington, Vermont, against combined German, British and Loyalist forces. This laid the foundation for the American victory at Saratoga two months later. Historian Michael P. Gabriel has collected over fifty firsthand accounts from the people who experienced this engagement, including veterans from both sides and civilians―women and children who witnessed the horrors of the battle. Gabriel also details a virtually unknown skirmish between Americans and Loyalists. These accounts, along with Gabriel’s overviews of the battle, bring to life the terror, fear and uncertainty of war.
The Battle for New York tells the story of how the city became the pivot on which the American Revolution turned―from the political and religious struggles of the 1760s and early 1770s that polarized its citizens and increasingly made New York a hotbed of radical thought and action; to the campaign of 1776, which turned today’s five boroughs and Westchester County into a series of battlefields; to the seven years of British occupation and martial law, during which time Washington and Congress were as focused on getting the city back as the British were on holding it. The contest for New York was by far the largest military venture of the Revolutionary War; it involved almost every significant participant in the war on both sides; and there can be little doubt that during this campaign, the fate of America hung in the balance on several occasions. A profound and memorable saga in its own right, The Battle for New York offers valuable new insight into the American Revolution.
The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn
The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn. Including a New and Circumstantial Account of the Battle of Long Island and the Loss of New York. This is Henry Phelps Johnston’s classic and detailed account of the battles fought around New York in 1776. This is a reprint of the 1878 edition upon which most research by later historians was based upon. Johnston gives a detailed account of forces involved, their commanders, position prior to and during the battles including Long Island, Kip’s Bay, Harlem Heights, and White Plains. He listed a large collection of primary sources including correspondence, orders, description of battles, memoirs, and official reports. Though over the decades, some information has proven incorrect, most remain accurate and is an excellent source for research.
The summer months of 1776 witnessed the most consequential events in the story of our country’s founding. While the thirteen colonies came together and agreed to secede from the British Empire, the British were dispatching the largest armada ever to cross the Atlantic to crush the rebellion in the cradle. The Continental Congress and the Continental Army were forced to make decisions on the run, improvising as history congealed around them. In a brilliant and seamless narrative, Ellis meticulously examines the most influential figures in this propitious moment, including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Britain’s Admiral Lord Richard and General William Howe. He weaves together the political and military experiences as two sides of a single story, and shows how events on one front influenced outcomes on the other.
Drawing upon new research and scholarship, historian Paul Lockhart, author of the critically acclaimed Revolutionary War biography The Drillmaster of Valley Forge, offers a penetrating reassessment of the first major engagement of the American Revolution. In the tradition of David McCullough’s 1776,Lockhart illuminates the Battle of Bunker Hill as a crucial event in the creation of an American identity, dexterously interweaving the story of this pivotal pitched battle with two other momentous narratives: the creation of America’s first army, and the rise of the man who led it, George Washington.
Benedict Arnold’s Navy by James Nelson
An epic story of one man’s devotion to the American cause. In October 1776, four years before Benedict Arnold’s treasonous attempt to hand control of the Hudson River to the British, his patch-work fleet on Lake Champlain was all that stood between British forces and a swift end to the American rebellion. Benedict Arnold’s Navy is the dramatic chronicle of that desperate battle and of the extraordinary events that occurred on the American Revolution’s critical northern front. Written with captivating narrative vitality, this landmark book shows how Benedict Arnold’s fearless leadership against staggering odds in a northern wilderness secured for America the independence that he would later try to betray. “James Nelson is a master both of his period and of the English language.”
–Patrick O’Brian, author of Master and Commander
Boston, 1775: A town occupied by General Thomas Gage’s redcoats and groaning with Tory refugees from the Massachusetts countryside. Besieged for two months by a rabble in arms, the British decided to break out of town. American spies discovered their plans, and on the night of June 16, 1775, a thousand rebels marched out onto Charlestown peninsula and began digging a redoubt (not on Bunker Hill, which they had been ordered to fortify, but on Breeds Hill, well within cannon shot of the British batteries and ships). At daybreak, HMS Lively began firing. It was the opening round of a battle that saw unbelievable heroism and tragic blunders on both sides (a battle that marked a point of no return for England and her colonies), the beginning of all-out war.
A visual and narrative overview of the principal military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. Symonds narrates each battle in a clear, concise, and readable way. Accompanying two-color, full-page maps make everything easy to understand, and make this book an ideal classroom text, battlefield tour guide, or library reference.
Special Operations in the American Revolution
In this book, renowned author, and former U.S. Army Colonel, Robert Tonsetic describes and analyzes numerous examples of special operations conducted during the Revolutionary War. While the British might seize the coastlines, the interior still belonged to the Americans should the Empire venture inward. Most of the operations were conducted by American irregulars and volunteers, carefully selected, with specialized skills, and led by leaders with native intelligence. While General Washington endeavored to confront the Empire on conventional terms―for pure pride’s sake at the founding of the Republic–he meantime relied on his small units to keep the enemy off balance. When the British and their Indian allies began to wage war on American settlements west of the Appalachians, Washington had to again rely on partisan and militias to conduct long-range strikes and raids targeting enemy forts and outposts. Throughout the war, what we today call SpecOps were an integral part of American strategy, and many of the lessons learned and tactics used at the time are still studied by modern day Special Operations forces.
American Spring by Walter R. Borneman
A vibrant new look at the American Revolution’s first months. When we reflect on our nation’s history, the American Revolution can feel almost like a foregone conclusion. In reality, the first weeks and months of 1775 were very tenuous, and a fractured and ragtag group of colonial militias had to coalesce rapidly to have even the slimmest chance of toppling the mighty British Army. American Spring follows a fledgling nation from Paul Revere’s ride of December 1774 and the first shots fired on Lexington Green through the catastrophic Battle of Bunker Hill, culminating with a Virginian named George Washington taking command of colonial forces on July 3, 1775. Focusing on the colorful heroes John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Benjamin Franklin, and Patrick Henry, and the ordinary Americans caught up in the revolution, Walter R. Borneman uses newly available sources and research to tell the story of how a decade of discontent erupted into an armed rebellion that forged our nation.
The Maryland 400 in the Battle of Long Island
On August 27, 1776, in Brooklyn, during one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the Revolutionary War, a small contingent of Maryland soldiers sacrificed themselves to save thousands, earning them the venerated name of the Maryland 400. The American Army, approx. 10,000 men had been flanked and faced annihilation. With the whole of General Stirling’s division about to be crushed, Stirling needed time to escape. He ordered Col. Gist’s Marylanders to charge the British line. Gist was to assault the vanguard of an entire British division, numbering 2,000 men with artillery. In their first real battle, mostly boys in their teens, didn’t hesitate. They closed ranks and pushed forward into the hailstorm of lead. As musket balls thinned their lines, the Marylanders would fall back, reform and strike again and again; 256 perished on the field of battle while all but a handful were wounded and captured. Meanwhile Stirling’s division successfully crossed Gowanus Creek. This well researched account includes biographies with extensive quoted material in addition to a general historic overview.
Victory on Sullivan’s Island: 1776 Battle of Charles Town
In the early months of 1776, British Admiral Sir Peter Parker’s fleet and General Henry Clinton are ordered to Charles Town, South Carolina, America’s wealthiest port, to capture and launch an invasion of the southern colonies. In Charles Town, Col. William Moultrie, prepares militia troops and fortifications on Sullivan’s Island for the expected arrival of the British fleet. Against the greatest of odds, and ignoring American Gen. Charles Lee’s recommendation to abandon the fort, Col. Moultrie’s forces strengthen the fort’s walls. A confident British fleet anchors and opens one of the war’s greatest cannonades. To the surprise of the British, most of their cannon balls are literally sucked into the soft, pious trees lining the fort, doing little if any damage. Meanwhile, Col. Moultrie’s men pound the British ships in a steady, accurate, and unrelenting fire, devastating the fleet. The Americans prevail in this little known, yet stunning patriot victory, and the British limp north to New York City to join Admiral and General Howe’s forces.
The history of the Battles of Lexington and Concord were the culmination of years of unrest between those loyal to the British monarchy and those advocating for more autonomy and dreaming of independence from Great Britain in the future. On the morning of April 19th, Gage sent out a force of British soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith to confiscate, recapture, and destroy the military supplies gathered by the colonists and believed to be stored in the town of Concord. Historians Phillip S. Greenwalt and Robert Orrison unfold the facts of April 19, 1775, uncovering the amazing history that this pivotal spring day ushered in for the fate of Massachusetts and thirteen of Great Britain’s North American colonies with A Single Blow.
Volume 1 of a three part series is a comprehensive look at the brutal wilderness war that secured America’s independence . . . With Musket and Tomahawk is a vivid account of the American and British struggles in the sprawling wilderness region of the northeast during the Revolutionary War. Combining strategic, tactical, and personal detail, this book describes how the patriots of the recently organized Northern Army defeated England’s massive onslaught of 1777, thereby all but ensuring America’s independence. Underneath the umbrella of the Battle of Saratoga, countless battles and skirmishes were waged from the borders of Canada southward to Ticonderoga, Bennington, and West Point. Heroes on both sides were created by the score, though only one side proved victorious, amid a tapestry of madness, cruelty, and hardship in what can rightfully be called “the terrible Wilderness War of 1777.
In the Hurricane’s Eye: Battle of Yorktown
In the fall of 1780, after five frustrating years of war, George Washington had come to realize that the only way to defeat the British Empire was with the help of the French navy. But as he had learned after two years of trying, coordinating his army’s movements with those of a fleet of warships based thousands of miles away was next to impossible. And then, on September 5, 1781, the impossible happened. Recognized today as one of the most important naval engagements in the history of the world, the Battle of the Chesapeake–fought without a single American ship–made the subsequent victory of the Americans at Yorktown a virtual inevitability. In a narrative that moves from Washington’s headquarters on the Hudson River, to the wooded hillside in North Carolina, Philbrick details the epic and suspenseful year through to its triumphant conclusion. A riveting and wide-ranging story, full of dramatic, unexpected turns, In the Hurricane’s Eye reveals that the fate of the American Revolution depended, in the end, on Washington and the sea.
In his first volume, on the Saratoga campaign, author Michael Logusz described how Burgoyne’s main thrust was first stalled and then obliterated during its advance down the Hudson River. But the British had indeed launched a third thrust from the west, embarking from Lake Ontario at Oswego and thence forging its way down the Mohawk Valley. This third British thrust, under General Barry St. Leger, was perhaps the most terrifying of all, as it overran a sparsely populated wilderness where every man and boy had long needed to bear arms to protect against the ravages of the Iroquois Federation. At Fort Stanwix in upstate New York a Patriot (former British) fort held fast, though surrounded by St. Leger’s forces and his Mohawk and Loyalist auxiliaries. A relief column some 800 strong under Nicholas Herkimer attempted to relieve the fort, but it was ambushed en route with most of its men―including the entire male population of several nearby communities―killed or wounded. At this Battle of Oriskany, the basis for the movie “Drums Along the Mohawk,” Herkimer himself was mortally wounded. In this book, as in his first volume, the author captures the terrain, tactics and terror of this brutal, multifaceted wilderness war.
In this third volume of Michael Logusz’s study of the Wilderness War of 1777, a sizable British military force, led by General Clinton, augmented with German and loyalist soldiers, attacks the Northern Army’s southern front in the fall of 1777. Logusz presents how British general Sir William Howe decided to pursue Washington in Pennsylvania, leaving behind British general Sir Henry Clinton in New York City to deal with events to the north. The book vividly describes the hardships encountered by the patriots fighting for independence and their opponents, along with Clinton’s experiences in and around New York City, West Point, and the Hudson Valley region. Logusz illustrates in depth the terrain, tactics, and terror of the multifaceted Wilderness War of 1777.
With Fire & Sword: The Battle of Bunker Hill
On June 17, 1775, the entire dynamic of the newborn American Revolution was changed. If the Battle of Lexington and Concord was, in the immortal words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the “shot heard round the world,” Bunker Hill was the volley that rocked Britain’s Parliament and the ministry of King George III to its core. The Battle of Bunker Hill was the first hostile engagement of the Revolution between two organized armies, and the first time that a genuine American army had ever taken the field. It gave the British their first inkling that the Colonial rabble-in-arms they had envisioned might actually prove to be a formidable fighting force.
In this book, award-winning author James L. Nelson tells the exciting and dramatic story of the fight that changed the face of the American Revolution. A masterful new history of the first set-piece battle of the Revolutionary War, With Fire and Sword offers critical new insights into one of the most important actions of our country’s founding.
Bloodshed in the American Revolution began in Massachusetts and ended in South Carolina. That the last major action of the war occurred in the South was no accident. The British regarded the South as their best chance of crushing the rebellion, and a southern strategy governed British military campaigning during the decisive years from 1778 to 1781. How that strategy failed in Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia is answered in this highly readable military history, which carries the reader from the early backcountry skirmishes to the climactic triumph at Yorktown. From Savannah to Yorktown sketches many of the colorful field commanders, discusses the weaponry and uniforms, and, above all, unfolds the battle events, strategy, and tactics. Well-illustrated with maps, portraits, battle scenes, and arms.
“A meticulous, adrenaline-filled account of the earliest days of the Continental Navy.”—New York Times Bestselling Author Laurence Bergreen. After the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord, England’s King George sent hundreds of ships westward to bottle up American harbors and prey on American shipping. Colonists had no force to defend their coastline and waterways until John Adams of Massachusetts proposed a bold solution: The Continental Congress should raise a navy. The idea was mad. The Royal Navy was the mightiest floating arsenal in history. Beginning with five converted merchantmen, America’s sailors became formidable warriors, matching their wits, skills, and courage against the best of the British fleet. Meticulously researched and masterfully told, Give Me a Fast Ship is a rousing, epic tale of war on the high seas—and the definitive history of the American Navy during the Revolutionary War.
The Battle of Brandywine, fought on September 11, 1777, along its namesake creek in the bucolic Pennsylvania countryside, was one of the largest engagements of the Revolutionary War. To those who participated in this massive battle, spread out over ten square miles and lasting from late afternoon until dark, it was unforgettable.
For history buffs and armchair strategists, here is a blow-by-blow analysis of the men, commanders, and weaponry used in the famous battles of Bunker Hill, Quebec, Trenton, Princeton, Saratoga, Cowpens, and more—with dozens of detailed maps and illustrations.