Author: John W. JacksonPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400
Book Description
With the British Army in Philadelphia, 1777-1778
Author: John W. JacksonPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400
Book Description
The Philadelphia Campaign, 1777-1778
Author: Stephen R. TaaffePublisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
Engagingly recounts how this often underestimated Revolutionary War campaign became a critical turning point in the war that led to the ultimate victory of the Continental Army over the British forces.
Grand Forage 1778
Author: Todd BraistedPublisher: Journal of the American Revolu
ISBN: 9781594162503
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The British Surprise Attack into New Jersey and New York to Support Their Planned Invasion of the Southern Colonies After two years of defeats and reverses, 1778 had been a year of success for George Washington and the Continental Army. France had entered the war as the ally of the United States, the British had evacuated Philadelphia, and the redcoats had been fought to a standstill at the Battle of Monmouth. While the combined French-American effort to capture Newport was unsuccessful, it lead to intelligence from British-held New York that indicated a massive troop movement was imminent. British officers were selling their horses and laying in supplies for their men. Scores of empty naval transports were arriving in the city. British commissioners from London were offering peace, granting a redress of every grievance expressed in 1775. Spies repeatedly reported conversations of officers talking of leaving. To George Washington, and many others, it appeared the British would evacuate New York City, and the Revolutionary War might be nearing a successful conclusion. Then, on September 23, 1778, six thousand British troops erupted into neighboring Bergen County, New Jersey, followed the next day by three thousand others surging northward into Westchester County, New York. Washington now faced a British Army stronger than Burgoyne's at Saratoga the previous year. What, in the face of all intelligence to the contrary, had changed with the British? Through period letters, reports, newspapers, journals, pension applications, and other manuscripts from archives in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Germany, the complete picture of Britain's last great push around New York City can now be told. The strategic situation of Britain's tenuous hold in America is intermixed with the tactical views of the soldiers in the field and the local inhabitants, who only saw events through their narrow vantage points. This is the first publication to properly narrate the events of this period as one campaign. Grand Forage 1778: The Battleground Around New York City by historian Todd W. Braisted explores the battles, skirmishes, and maneuvers that left George Washington and Sir Henry Clinton playing a deadly game of chess in the lower Hudson Valley as a prelude to the British invasion of the Southern colonies.
The Winter That Won the War
Author: Phillip S. GreenwaltPublisher: Emerging Revolutionary War
ISBN: 9781611214932
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
"An Army of skeletons appeared before our eyes naked, starved, sick and discouraged."Gouverneur Morris recorded these words in his report to the Continental Congress after a visit to the Continental Army encampment at Valley Forge. Sent as part of a fact-finding mission, Morris and his fellow congressmen arrived to conditions far worse than they had initially expected.After a campaigning season that saw the defeat at Brandywine, the loss of Philadelphia, the capital of the rebellious British North American colonies, and the reversal at Germantown, George Washington and his harried army marched into Valley Forge on December 19, 1777.What transpired in the next six months prior to the departure from the winter cantonment on June 19, 1778 was truly remarkable. The stoic Virginian, George Washington solidified his hold on the army and endured political intrigue, the quartermaster department was revived with new leadership from a former Rhode Island Quaker, and a German baron trained the army in the rudiments of being a soldier and military maneuvers.Valley Forge conjures up images of cold, desperation, and starvation. Yet Valley Forge also became the winter of transformation and improvement that set the Continental Army on the path to military victory and the fledgling nation on the path to independence.In The Winter that Won the War: The Winter Encampment at Valley Forge, 1777-1778, historian Phillip S. Greenwalt takes the reader on campaign in the year 1777 and through the winter encampment, detailing the various changes that took place within Valley Forge that ultimately led to the success of the American cause. Walk with the author through 1777 and into 1778 and see how these months truly were the winter that won the war.
Fatal Sunday
Author: Mark Edward LenderPublisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806155132
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 625
Book Description
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. Without the victory at Monmouth Courthouse, Washington's critics might well have marshaled the political strength to replace him as the American commander-in-chief. Authors Mark Edward Lender and Garry Wheeler Stone argue that in political terms, the Battle of Monmouth constituted a pivotal moment in the War for Independence. Viewing the political and military aspects of the campaign as inextricably entwined, this book offers a fresh perspective on Washington’s role in it. Drawing on a wide range of historical sources—many never before used, including archaeological evidence—Lender and Stone disentangle the true story of Monmouth and provide the most complete and accurate account of the battle, including both American and British perspectives. In the course of their account it becomes evident that criticism of Washington’s performance in command was considerably broader and deeper than previously acknowledged. In light of long-standing practical and ideological questions about his vision for the Continental Army and his ability to win the war, the outcome at Monmouth—a hard-fought tactical draw—was politically insufficient for Washington. 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.
Philadelphia Campaign
Author: David G. MartinPublisher: Da Capo Press, Incorporated
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264
Book Description
Brandywine, Germantown, Valley Forge, Monmouth. These are some of the most famous locales of the Revolution, yet not one was the scene of an American victory, except perhaps of the spirit. The Philadelphia campaign, which technically ran for well over a year from early 1777 to mid-summer of 1778, is recognized as the high point of the Revolution. It was a campaign during which the British won most every battle and gloriously seized their objective, the Colonial capital at Philadelphia, yet they were not able to win the war. Thanks to the fortitude and determination of leaders like Greene, Wayne, Morgan, Lafayette, Von Steuben, and especially George Washington, the brave American citizen soldiers refused to admit defeat and weathered the dark days of Valley Forge to emerge a more efficient fighting machine, determined to win the war no matter how long it took. Such was the patriotism of the Colonial troops who won their nation's independence from the professional soldiers and Hessian hirelings of King George. Military historian Dr. David G. Martin's The Philadelphia Campaign is a lively account of an epic period in American history. His narrative includes detailed strategic and tactical analyses of the movements of the generals and their battles for the city of Philadelphia along with the story of the hardships and trials of soldiers on both sides. What emerges is a story of courage, incompetence, tenacity, jealousy, and intrigue. The book is well illustrated with contemporary drawings and maps. A reader's guide provides a basis for further study and there is information about sites from the war which can still be seen today. Sidebars provide information on the period such as theleadership of both armies, the weapons they used, the role of African-Americans in the Revolutionary War, and the stories of heroines Lydia Darragh and Molly Pitcher. The Philadelphia Campaign is not so much military history as American history. It is an important work for anyone interested in how the United States of America came to be.
Valley Forge Winter
Author: Wayne BodlePublisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 9780271045467
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 356
Book Description
Refuting commonly held myths about the American Revolution, this comprehensive history of the colonial army's winter encampment of 1777-1778 reveals the events that occurred both inside and outside the camp boundaries, discussing interactions between the soldiers and local civilians, divisions within the army, the political and military strategies of George Washington, and their implications in terms of the future of the United States. Reprint.
The Army Medical Department, 1775-1818
Author: M. C. GillettPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Medicine, Military
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
Naval Documents of the American Revolution
Author: United States. Naval History DivisionPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Revolutionary Medicine
Author: Jeanne E AbramsPublisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 081475936X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 315
Book Description
An engaging history of the role that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin played in the origins of public health in America. Before the advent of modern antibiotics, one’s life could be abruptly shattered by contagion and death, and debility from infectious diseases and epidemics was commonplace for early Americans, regardless of social status. Concerns over health affected the Founding Fathers and their families as it did slaves, merchants, immigrants, and everyone else in North America. As both victims of illness and national leaders, the Founders occupied a unique position regarding the development of public health in America. Historian Jeanne E. Abrams’s Revolutionary Medicine refocuses the study of the lives of George and Martha Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John and Abigail Adams, and James and Dolley Madison away from politics to the perspective of sickness, health, and medicine. For the Founders, republican ideals fostered a reciprocal connection between individual health and the “health” of the nation. Studying the encounters of these American Founders with illness and disease, as well as their viewpoints about good health, not only provides a richer and more nuanced insight into their lives, but also opens a window into the practice of medicine in the eighteenth century, which is at once intimate, personal, and first hand. Today’s American public health initiatives have their roots in the work of America’s Founders, for they recognized early on that government had compelling reasons to shoulder some new responsibilities with respect to ensuring the health and well-being of its citizenry—beginning the conversation about the country’s state of medicine and public healthcare that continues to be a work in progress.