Download or read book George Washington s Secret Navy written by James L. Nelson and published by McGraw Hill Professional. This book was released on 2008-05-18 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Complements the author’s last book, the well-received Benedict Arnold’s Navy Details an important but rarely mentioned event in American history

Download or read book George Washington s Great Gamble written by James L. Nelson and published by McGraw Hill Professional. This book was released on 2010-05-07 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One shining yet overlooked moment that changed the course of the Revolutionary War In the opening months of 1781, General George Washington feared his army would fail to survive another campaign season. The spring and summer only served to reinforce his despair, but in late summer the changing circumstances of war presented a once-in-a-war opportunity for a French armada to hold off the mighty British navy while his own troops with French reinforcements drove Lord Cornwallis's forces to the Chesapeake. The Battle of the Capes would prove the only time the French ever fought the Royal Navy to a draw, and for the British army it was a catastrophe. Cornwallis confidently retreated to Yorktown, expecting to be evacuated by a British fleet that never arrived. In the end he had no choice but to surrender. Although the war sputtered on another two years, its outcome was never in doubt after Yorktown. General Washington's Great Gamble is the story of the greatest naval engagement of the American Revolution. It is also a study in leadership, good and bad, political machinations and the wild, unpredictable circumstances that led to the extraordinary confluence of military and naval resources at that time and place. Topics include: Looking South; Sea Power for the General; Arnold; Copper Bottoms; Head of Elk; The Battle of Cape Henry; An Attempt to Conquer Virginia; Greene and Cornwallis: Looking North; The American Command; The Battle of Guilford Courthouse; Pyrrhic Victory; Reinforcing the Chesapeake; "[T]he enemy have turned so much of their attention to the Southern States..."; The Battle of Blandford; The British War at Sea; Juncture; "I am inclined to think well of York..."; The Promise of a Fleet; The Battle of Green Springs; The March on New York; An Operation to the Southward; The Arrival of De Grasse; The Battle of the Capes;Cornwallis Surrenders

Download or read book In the Hurricane s Eye written by Nathaniel Philbrick and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Nathaniel Philbrick is a masterly storyteller. Here he seeks to elevate the naval battles between the French and British to a central place in the history of the American Revolution. He succeeds, marvelously."--The New York Times Book Review The thrilling story of the year that won the Revolutionary War from the New York Times bestselling author of In the Heart of the Sea and Mayflower. In the concluding volume of his acclaimed American Revolution series, Nathaniel Philbrick tells the thrilling story of the year that won the Revolutionary War. 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 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. 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.

Download or read book George Washington s Secret Spy War written by John A. Nagy and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2016-09-20 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George Washington was America’s first spymaster, and his skill as a spymaster won the war for independence. George Washington’s Secret Spy War is the untold story of how George Washington took a disorderly, ill-equipped rabble and defeated the best trained and best equipped army of its day in the Revolutionary War. Author John A. Nagy has become the nation’s leading expert on the subject, discovering hundreds of spies who went behind enemy lines to gather intelligence during the American Revolution, many of whom are completely unknown to most historians. Using George Washington’s diary as the primary source, Nagy tells the story of Washington’s experiences during the French and Indian War and his first steps in the field of espionage. Despite what many believe, Washington did not come to the American Revolution completely unskilled in this area of warfare. Espionage was a skill he honed during the French and Indian war and upon which he heavily depended during the Revolutionary War. He used espionage to level the playing field and then exploited it on to final victory. Filled with thrilling and never-before-told stories from the battlefield and behind enemy lines, this is the story of how Washington out-spied the British. For the first time, readers will discover how espionage played a major part in the American Revolution and why Washington was a master at orchestrating it.

Download or read book George Washington s Secret Six written by Brian Kilmeade and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When George Washington beat a hasty retreat from New York City in August 1776, many thought the American Revolution might soon be over. Instead, Washington rallied—thanks in large part to a little-known, top-secret group called the Culper Spy Ring. He realized that he couldn’t defeat the British with military might, so he recruited a sophisticated and deeply secretive intelligence network to infiltrate New York. Drawing on extensive research, Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger have offered fascinating portraits of these spies: a reserved Quaker merchant, a tavern keeper, a brash young longshoreman, a curmudgeonly Long Island bachelor, a coffeehouse owner, and a mysterious woman. Long unrecognized, the secret six are finally receiving their due among the pantheon of American heroes.

Download or read book Benedict Arnold s Navy written by James L. Nelson and published by McGraw Hill Professional. This book was released on 2006-05-12 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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. Praise for James L. Nelson: "James Nelson is a master both of his period and of the English language." --Patrick O'Brian, author of Master and Commander "James L. Nelson tells this story with clarity and literary skill and with such ease and order that the reader feels he is attending a dissertation on history given by a consummate lecturer." --Ron Berthel, Associated Press, on Reign of Iron: The Story of the First Battling Ironclads, winner of the American Library Association’s 2004 Award for Best Military History "It is, by far, the best Civil War novel I’ve read; reeking of battle, duty, heroism and tragedy. It’s a triumph of imagination and good, taut writing . . . " --Bernard Cornwell on Glory in the Name, winner of the W. Y. Boyd Literary Award

Download or read book If By Sea written by George C Daughan and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2008-05-13 with total page 674 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American Revolution-and thus the history of the United States-began not on land but on the sea. Paul Revere began his famous midnight ride not by jumping on a horse, but by scrambling into a skiff with two other brave patriots to cross Boston Harbor to Charlestown. Revere and his companions rowed with muffled oars to avoid capture by the British warships closely guarding the harbor. As they paddled silently, Revere's neighbor was flashing two lanterns from the belfry of Old North Church, signaling patriots in Charlestown that the redcoats were crossing the Charles River in longboats. In every major Revolutionary battle thereafter the sea would play a vital, if historically neglected, role. When the American colonies took up arms against Great Britain, they were confronting the greatest sea-power of the age. And it was during the War of Independence that the American Navy was born. But following the British naval model proved crushingly expensive, and the Founding Fathers fought viciously for decades over whether or not the fledgling republic truly needed a deep-water fleet. The debate ended only when the Federal Navy proved indispensable during the War of 1812. Drawing on decades of prodigious research, historian George C. Daughan chronicles the embattled origins of the U.S. Navy. From the bloody and gunpowder-drenched battles fought by American sailors on lakes and high seas to the fierce rhetorical combat waged by the Founders in Congress, If By Sea charts the course by which the Navy became a vital and celebrated American institution.

Download or read book George Washington s Schooners written by Chester G. Hearn and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though never an overpowering force, Washington's flotilla of eight fast, lightly armed ships harassed British supply lines along the New England coast for twenty-six months beginning in the fall of 1775. Manned by seamen from his army who longed to show King George who owned the colonial coast, the schooners captured fifty-five prizes and accelerated the British decision to evacuate Boston. Chester Hearn's analyses of Washington's naval leadership show that Washington, though the man least likely to appreciate the importance of seapower, was the very person who seemed to understand it best. He had his little squadron at sea months before the Continental Congress finally agreed to pass an appropriation to finance the first Continental fleet, and much of the early naval policy that followed had its foundation in Washington's instructions to his captains. In telling the story of Washington's schooners, Hearn brings to life the early days of America's war for independence with tales of perseverance, courage, and sacrifice. He describes a motley collection of captains, sailors, marines, and naval agents, recounts the fledgling navy's successes and failures, and examines the reactions of both the Royal Navy and the emerging American nation. It is at once an exciting tale of adventure and authentic, little-known history.

Download or read book George Washington s Secret Six written by Brian Kilmeade and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2016-05-24 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shares the true story of an anonymous group of spies who played important roles in winning the Revolutionary War, documenting how they risked their lives to obtain crucial intelligence for General Washington using sophisticated tactics and complex codes.

Download or read book Naval Documents of the American Revolution written by United States. Naval History Division and published by . This book was released on 1964 with total page 1518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the tradition of the preceding volumes - the first of which was published in 1964 - this work synthesizes edited documents, including correspondence, ship logs, muster rolls, orders, and newspaper accounts, that provide a comprehensive understanding of the war at sea in the spring of 1778. The editors organize this wide array of texts chronologically by theater and incorporate French, Italian, and Spanish transcriptions with English translations throughout.

Download or read book With Fire and Sword written by James L. Nelson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2011-03-01 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A masterful history of the first set-piece battle of the Revolutionary War, James L. Nelson's WithFire and Sword offers critical new insights into one of the most important actions of our country's founding. 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. He looks at the events leading up to that fateful day, the personalities on both the British and American sides who made momentous decisions, and the bloody outcome of those crucial choices, which would affect the British strategy on the battlefield throughout the coming six more years of active warfare.

Download or read book Naval Documents of the American Revolution written by United States. Naval History Division and published by . This book was released on 1964 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book George Washington s Secret Six written by Brian Kilmeade and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All about George Washington's top-secret spy ring that helped defeat the British.

Download or read book The Strategy of Victory written by Thomas Fleming and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2017-10-10 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sweeping and insightful grand strategic overview of the American Revolution, highlighting Washington's role in orchestrating victory and creating the US Army Led by the Continental Congress, the Americans almost lost the war for independence because their military thinking was badly muddled. Following the victory in 1775 at Bunker Hill, patriot leaders were convinced that the key to victory was the home-grown militia -- local men defending their families and homes. But the flush of early victory soon turned into a bitter reality as the British routed Americans fleeing New York. General George Washington knew that having and maintaining an army of professional soldiers was the only way to win independence. As he fought bitterly with the leaders in Congress over the creation of a regular army, he patiently waited until his new army was ready for pitched battle. His first opportunity came late in 1776, following his surprise crossing of the Delaware River. In New Jersey, the strategy of victory was about to unfold. In The Strategy of Victory, preeminent historian Thomas Fleming examines the battles that created American independence, revealing how the creation of a professional army worked on the battlefield to secure victory, independence, and a lasting peace for the young nation.

Download or read book Sea Raiders of the American Revolution written by E. Gordon Bowen-Hassell and published by Government Printing Office. This book was released on 2003 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Rebels at Sea Privateering in the American Revolution written by Eric Jay Dolin and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2022-05-31 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature Winner of the Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award A Massachusetts Center for the Book "Must-Read" Finalist for the New England Society Book Award Finalist for the Boston Authors Club Julia Ward Howe Book Award The bestselling author of Black Flags, Blue Waters reclaims the daring freelance sailors who proved essential to the winning of the Revolutionary War. The heroic story of the founding of the U.S. Navy during the Revolution has been told many times, yet largely missing from maritime histories of America’s first war is the ragtag fleet of private vessels that truly revealed the new nation’s character—above all, its ambition and entrepreneurial ethos. In Rebels at Sea, best-selling historian Eric Jay Dolin corrects that significant omission, and contends that privateers, as they were called, were in fact critical to the American victory. Privateers were privately owned vessels, mostly refitted merchant ships, that were granted permission by the new government to seize British merchantmen and men of war. As Dolin stirringly demonstrates, at a time when the young Continental Navy numbered no more than about sixty vessels all told, privateers rushed to fill the gaps. Nearly 2,000 set sail over the course of the war, with tens of thousands of Americans serving on them and capturing some 1,800 British ships. Privateers came in all shapes and sizes, from twenty-five foot long whaleboats to full-rigged ships more than 100 feet long. Bristling with cannons, swivel guns, muskets, and pikes, they tormented their foes on the broad Atlantic and in bays and harbors on both sides of the ocean. The men who owned the ships, as well as their captains and crew, would divide the profits of a successful cruise—and suffer all the more if their ship was captured or sunk, with privateersmen facing hellish conditions on British prison hulks, where they were treated not as enemy combatants but as pirates. Some Americans viewed them similarly, as cynical opportunists whose only aim was loot. Yet Dolin shows that privateersmen were as patriotic as their fellow Americans, and moreover that they greatly contributed to the war’s success: diverting critical British resources to protecting their shipping, playing a key role in bringing France into the war on the side of the United States, providing much-needed supplies at home, and bolstering the new nation’s confidence that it might actually defeat the most powerful military force in the world. Creating an entirely new pantheon of Revolutionary heroes, Dolin reclaims such forgotten privateersmen as Captain Jonathan Haraden and Offin Boardman, putting their exploits, and sacrifices, at the very center of the conflict. Abounding in tales of daring maneuvers and deadly encounters, Rebels at Sea presents this nation’s first war as we have rarely seen it before.

Download or read book Supplying Washington s Army written by Erna Risch and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: