Redcoats and Rebels

by Christopher Hibbert

This work offers a full-length, popular history of the American War of Independence - the "cruel accursed war" that changed the world forever. The story of this war has usually been told in terms of a conflict between blundering British generals and their rigidly disciplined red-coated troops on the one side, and heroic American patriots in homespun shirts and coonskin caps on the other. Here, the author portrays the realities of a war condemned by thousands of Americans, in which George Washington came perilously close to defeat. Both before and after General Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga, the British rarely lost a battle until the French helped the rebels defeat Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781.

Part 1: sons of liberty; first blood; bunker hill; Washington takes command; "An ugly job"; the war in Canada; disasters in Virginia. Part 2: the Declaration of Independence; the battle for New York; generals at loggerheads; winter on the Delaware; the fall of Philadelphia; the army of the north; surrender at Saratoga; the English debate; intrigues at Valley Forge; fighting at Monmouth Court House; enemies of the French. Part 3: marching through Georgia; quarrels in New York; butchers and patriots; slaughter on King's Mountain; the traitor and the spy; with Cornwallis in the Carolinas; the road to Yorktown. Epilogue: the fate of characters whose end is not recorded in the text.