Band of Giants The Amateur Soldiers Who Won America's Independence

by Kelly, Jack

• ISBN13: 9781137278777
• ISBN10: 1137278773
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-09-09
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Summary

Band of Giants brings to life the founders who fought for our independence in the Revolutionary War. Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin are known to all; men like Morgan, Greene, and Wayne are less familiar. Yet the dreams of the politicians and theorists only became real because fighting men were willing to take on the grim, risky, brutal work of war. We know Fort Knox, but what about Henry Knox, the burly Boston bookseller who took over the American artillery at the age of 25? Eighteen counties in the United States commemorate Richard Montgomery, but do we know that this revered martyr launched a full-scale invasion of Canada? The soldiers of the American Revolution were a diverse lot: merchants and mechanics, farmers and fishermen, paragons and drunkards. Most were ardent amateurs. Even George Washington, assigned to take over the army around Boston in 1775, consulted books on military tactics. Here, Jack Kelly vividly captures the fraught condition of the war—the bitterly divided populace, the lack of supplies, the repeated setbacks on the battlefield, and the appalling physical hardships. That these inexperienced warriors could take on and defeat the superpower of the day was one of the remarkable feats in world history.

Author Biography

Jack Kelly is a journalist, novelist, and historian. He has contributed to American Heritage, American Legacy, Invention & Technology, and other national periodicals, and is a New York Foundation for the Arts fellow in Nonfiction Literature. He has appeared on The History Channel , been interviewed on National Public Radio , and conducted book signings across the country. He lives near Kingston in New York’s Hudson Valley, where much of the action of the Revolutionary War took place.

Table of Contents

Contents

Chapter 1  Knowledge of the Military Art - 1754
Chapter 2  Blows Must Decide - 1774
Chapter 3  The Predicament We Are In - 1775
Chapter 4  Learning to be Soldiers - 1775
Chapter 5  Precious Convoy - 1776
Chapter 6  Sudden and Violent - 1776
Chapter 7  Valcour Island - 1776
Chapter 8  An Indecisive Mind - 1776
Chapter 9  Your Country is at Stake - 1776
Chapter 10  A Continual Clap of Thunder - 1777
Chapter 11  Fight As Well As Brag - 1777
Chapter 12  Something More at Stake - 1777
Chapter 13  The Discipline of the Leggs - 1778
Chapter 14  The Boldest Conduct - 1779
Chapter 15  The Fate of Battle - 1780
Chapter 16  Downright Fighting - 1780
Chapter 17  War is an Intricate Business - 1781
Chapter 18  America is Ours - 1781
Chapter 19  Our Troops - 1782
Chapter 20  The Large Hearts of Heroes - 1824