The Road to Valley Forge

John Buchanan

Description

Acclaim for The Road to Valley Forge

"Buchanan is a master of the historical narrative . . . a host of new insights into George Washington as a leader of men."
-Thomas Fleming, author of Liberty!: The American Revolution

"The Road to Valley Forge is an effective operational history, clearly written, judicious in its judgments and based on a careful look at the war from both sides."
-Jeremy Black, author of War for America: The Fight for Independence, 1775--1783

"John Buchanan skillfully guides us through 1776 and 1777, the two most critical years of the Revolutionary War for George Washington as commander in chief. With a gift for finding the apt quotation and the telling anecdote, the author traces the growth of Washington as a commanding general and the professional development of the Continental Army."
-Don Higginbotham, Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The Road to Valley Forge tells the whole story of Washington's growth from inexperienced backwoods general to true Commander in Chief of a professional fighting force. This warts-and-all portrait of America's greatest hero reveals a courageous and intelligent man struggling desperately to learn from his mistakes, forge a motley assortment of militiamen into a real army, and demonstrate to all of his fellow Americans that they could, indeed, become masters of their own destiny.
List of Illustrations and Maps.

Preface.

Acknowledgments.

1. Invasion! 1776.

2. “I scarcely know which way to turn”.

3. “It was hard work to Die”.

4. The Night of the Fox.

5. Manhattan Transfer.

6. “This is a most unfortunate affair”.

7. “Constant perplexities and mortifications”.

8. “I conclude the troops will be in perfect security”.

9. “Success of an Enterprize”.

10. “Harrass their troops to death”.

11. “The American Fabius”?

12. “Come boys, we shall do better another time”.

13. “Perplexing Maneuvres”.

14. “Our army is in higher spirits than ever”.

15. “We . . . took post near the Valley Forge”.

Epilogue.

Notes.

Suggestions for Further Reading. Index.

Sujets

• Revolutionary Periode
• Histoire
• Continental Army
• American Revolution
• United States
• History
• Valley Forge
• John Buchanan
• George Washington

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 21 avril 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780470318249
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Road to Valley Forge
The Road to Valley Forge
How Washington Built the Army That Won the Revolution
John Buchanan

John Wiley Sons, Inc.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright 2004 by John Buchanan. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada
Illustration credits: page vi: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Collis P. Huntington, 1896, 97.3; page 3: Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, Gift of Mr. George S. Colt, Jr., 1981, 98; page 17: Private Collection. Photo courtesy Frick Art Reference Library; page 25: Melford Hall, The Parker Collection, The National Trust; photo courtesy Frick Art Reference Library; pages 60, 118: Photo courtesy of Frick Art Reference Library; page 100: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Charles Allen Munn, 1924, 24.90.387; page 104: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Charles Allen Munn, 1924, 24.90.288; page 122: Det National-historiske Museum pa Frederiksborg, Hillerod; page 179: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Robert W. de Forest, 1906, 06.1346.2; page 205: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Samuel P. Avery, 1894, 91.4; pages 212, 213: American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Pa.; page 222: Photo courtesy University of Virginia Prints Collection, Albert H. Small Collections Library, University of Virginia Library; page 258: Charles Allen Munn Collection, Fordham University Library, Bronx, New York; page 295: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Robert W. de Forest, 1906, 06.1346.1.
Map credits: page 12: copyright 2004 by Laurel Aiello; pages 53, 239, 275: copyright 2004 by Laurel Aiello. Adapted from Robert W. Coakley and Stetson Conn, The War of the American Revolution: Narrative, Chronology, and Bibliography (Washington, DC: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1996); page 157: Robert W. Coakley and Stetson Conn, The War of the American Revolution: Narrative, Chronology, and Bibliography (Washington, DC: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1996)
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Buchanan, John, date.
The road to Valley Forge : how Washington built the army that won the Revolution / John Buchanan. p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-471-44156-2 (cloth)
1. United States. Continental Army-History. 2. Washington, George, 1732-1799-Military leadership. 3. Generals-United States-Biography. 4. United States-History-Revolution, 1775-1783-Manpower. 5. United States-History-Revolution, 1775-1783-Campaigns.6. Howe, William Howe, Viscount, 1729-1814. 7. Howe, Richard Howe, Earl, 1726-1799. 8. United States-History-Revolution, 1775-1783-British forces. I. Title.
E259.B83 2004
973.3 3 092-dc22
2004001729
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Susi
George Washington by Charles Willson Peale
Contents
List of Illustrations and Maps
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 Invasion! 1776
2 I scarcely know which way to turn
3 It was hard work to Die
4 The Night of the Fox
5 Manhattan Transfer
6 This is a most unfortunate affair
7 Constant perplexities and mortifications
8 I conclude the troops will be in perfect security
9 Success of an Enterprize
10 Harrass their troops to death
11 The American Fabius ?
12 Come boys, we shall do better another time
13 Perplexing Maneuvres
14 Our army is in higher spirits than ever
15 We . . . took post near the Valley Forge

Epilogue
Notes
Suggestions for Further Reading
Index
Illustrations and Maps
Illustrations
George Washington
Major Archibald Robertson
Richard, Earl Howe
Captain Sir Hyde Parker
Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge
Major General Charles Lee
John Glover
Major General Nathanael Greene
Lieutenant General Johann von Ewald
Hugh Mercer Jr.
Marquis de Lafayette
Charles Willson Peale
The Artist (?) and General Washington
Sir Andrew Snape Hamond
Brigadier General Anthony Wayne
Major General Horatio Gates
Maps
Eastern North America, 1776
The Battle of Long Island and the Retreat from New York
Attack on Trenton
The Battle of Brandywine and the Pennsylvania-New Jersey Area of Operations
The Battle of Germantown
Preface
The impact of war upon society, both during and after wars, is undeniable. Our own times bear witness to this truth. We will, therefore, from time to time comment on the effect the War of the American Revolution had on civilian society-but only in passing, for that is not the focus of this book. Although politicians make revolutions and civilians suffer through them, it is soldiers who win them. After the Adamses and Jeffersons and Clintons and Draytons and others provided the agitation and propaganda and literature of revolution, then the Washingtons, the Greenes, the Morgans, the Glovers, and the mute thousands they led suffered the dirt and blood and horror and, in Winston Churchill s memorable words written about his great ancestor Marlborough, all the chances and baffling accidents of war to make the dreams of politicians come true. 1
This, then, is a book about men at war and the general who led them during the most critical period of the War of the American Revolution: August 1776 through the winter of 1777-1778. It was during this period that Great Britain had its best chances to destroy the Continental Army and crush the rebellion. But it also was during this period that George Washington evolved from a mistake-prone backwoods soldier to a wiser commander in chief of a regular army that in turn developed from rabble into the makings of a professional force.
We will also take more than a passing look at Washington s main opponents during these early years of the war, General Sir William Howe and the British and German regulars he commanded, as well as Sir William s elder brother, Admiral Richard, Lord Howe. But the main focus will be on George Washington the soldier and the Continental Army.
The reader also will note in the following pages a phenomenon that was then probably peculiar to British North America and remains a character trait of modern Americans-a concept of personal liberty that often bedeviled Washington s attempts to fashion a professional fighting force out of raw, untrained men and boys. Although this trait may have been more pronounced among the Yankees of New England, it was widespread in British North America south of Canada. It had been growing for more than a century and a half, and by the time of the Revolution it was deeply embedded in the character of the people. A lack of deference, a questioning of authority, a deep-rooted love of personal liberty. The British statesman Edmund Burke thought that a fierce spirit of liberty was stronger in the English colonies, probably, than in any other people of the earth. 2
These people were not yet full-blown Americans-that would not come until after the Revolution, during the birthing years of the early republic. They were still in large part New Englanders and Southerners, Rhode Islanders and South Carolinians, Pennsylvanians and New Yorkers, and this was another of Washington s problems as he tried to build a national army. But there was a slow, gravitational pull toward the center that grew stronger over the long colonial decades, marked by a cultural icon common to all: Liberty! The Revolution, first in the minds and hearts of the people, to use John Adams s words, radicalized during the turmoil in the decade preceding armed revolt, cemented by eight years of struggle that beneath the veneer of eighteenth-century civility was vicious and deadly serious, was more than a war of independence. It was truly a revolution that aimed at the overthrow in British North America of a monarchy and the establishment of a then scorned form of government called a republic. That it neither envisioned nor resulted in the overthrow of a social class, such as occurred in the French, Russian, and Chinese Revolutions, is irrelevant, for we are no