Download or read book Washington s Crossing written by David Hackett Fischer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-02-01 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Six months after the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution was all but lost. A powerful British force had routed the Americans at New York, occupied three colonies, and advanced within sight of Philadelphia. Yet, as David Hackett Fischer recounts in this riveting history, George Washington--and many other Americans--refused to let the Revolution die. On Christmas night, as a howling nor'easter struck the Delaware Valley, he led his men across the river and attacked the exhausted Hessian garrison at Trenton, killing or capturing nearly a thousand men. A second battle of Trenton followed within days. The Americans held off a counterattack by Lord Cornwallis's best troops, then were almost trapped by the British force. Under cover of night, Washington's men stole behind the enemy and struck them again, defeating a brigade at Princeton. The British were badly shaken. In twelve weeks of winter fighting, their army suffered severe damage, their hold on New Jersey was broken, and their strategy was ruined. Fischer's richly textured narrative reveals the crucial role of contingency in these events. We see how the campaign unfolded in a sequence of difficult choices by many actors, from generals to civilians, on both sides. While British and German forces remained rigid and hierarchical, Americans evolved an open and flexible system that was fundamental to their success. The startling success of Washington and his compatriots not only saved the faltering American Revolution, but helped to give it new meaning.
Download or read book The Crossing written by Jim Murphy and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is 1776, and George Washington's army of rebellious colonists is emboldened by its stunning victories over the British at Lexington and Concord, and at having driven the world's most formidable army from Boston. But now they face the threat of a brutal British retaliation. George Washington, who has little military experience, is unanimously chosen as commander in chief-in the hope that he can whip his ragtag, unruly troops into a real fighting army. As the British begin their invasion of New York City and out-battle the Americans in one encounter after another, George Washington isn't the only one who is overcome with doubts. In a breathtaking account of this pivotal moment in the Revolution, Jim Murphy masteruflly shows Washington's transformation from gentleman farmer to a brilliant general as he delivers the country from the blackest of times-into the brightest of futures.
Download or read book When Washington Crossed the Delaware written by Lynne Cheney and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-01-03 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is the story that I tell my grandchildren at Christmas. I hope that this book will bring the tradition of sharing history to families all across America." -- Lynne Cheney Christmas night, 1776, was a troubled time for our young country. In the six months since the Declaration of Independence had been signed, General George Washington and his troops had suffered defeat after defeat at the hands of the British. It looked as though our struggle for independence might be doomed, when Washington made a bold decision. He would lead the main body of his army across the Delaware River and launch a surprise attack on enemy forces. Washington and his men were going against the odds. It seemed impossible that the ragtag Americans could succeed against the mightiest power in the world. But the men who started across the icy Delaware loved their country and their leader. Under his command they would turn the tide of battle and change the course of history. Best-selling author Lynne Cheney tells the dramatic story of the military campaign that began on Christmas night in 1776. When Washington Crossed the Delaware will teach the young about the heroism, persistence, and patriotism of those who came before them.
Download or read book George Washington The Crossing written by Jack E. Levin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-06-04 with total page 59 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The #1 New York Times bestselling book for many weeks, Jack Levin presents a beautifully designed account of George Washington’s historic crossing of the Delaware River and the decisive Battle of Trenton, with a foreword by his son, #1 New York Times bestselling author and radio host Mark R. Levin. With the warm-hearted patriotism and passion he brought to his beautiful volume Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address Illustrated, Jack E. Levin illuminates a profound turning point of the American Revolution: the decisive Battle of Trenton and its prelude—General George Washington leading his broken and ailing troops in a fleet of small wooden boats across the ice-encased Delaware River. While one iconic nineteenth-century painting made the crossing a familiar image, the significance of the against-all-odds victory put into motion on Christmas night, 1776, cannot be told enough. Jack Levin brings to light several vital perspectives, and draws his text from General Washington’s letter to the Continental Congress to describe the amazing account of the unlikely defeat of the Hessian army at Trenton. As a father, Jack Levin inspired his sons—including Mark Levin, and Douglas, and Robert—with his love for America. Around the family table, he would share the facts and events of the nation’s founding, spark lively debates, and pass along his extensive knowledge and his deep and abiding patriotism. Featuring Revolution-era artwork, portraiture, and maps, George Washington: The Crossing imparts the same vivid, intimate telling, that of a father to his sons—the kind of history lesson that lives in the heart forever.
Download or read book Ten Crucial Days written by William L. Kidder and published by Knox Press. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On December 25, 1776, the American Revolution seemed all but defeated just six months after the Declaration of Independence had been adopted. George Washington’s army had suffered a series of defeats in New York and had retreated under British pressure across New Jersey and then the Delaware River to temporary sanctuary in Pennsylvania. This left the British army in a string of winter cantonments across the middle of New Jersey, the New Jersey state government in total disarray, and the Continental Congress fleeing Philadelphia now perceived as the next British target. Loyalists in New Jersey felt empowered and Patriots felt abandoned. Washington needed not only a battlefield victory, but also to reestablish Patriot control in New Jersey. Otherwise, it would be impossible to raise a larger, long-term army to continue the fight and convince the citizens that victory was possible. The story of these ten crucial days is one that displays Washington’s military and interpersonal abilities along with his personal determination and bravery to keep the Revolution alive through maintaining the psychological confidence of the Patriots, while reducing the psychological confidence of his British political and military opponents. Throughout these ten days, Washington was faced with changing situations requiring modifications or outright different plans and his well-thought-out actions benefitted from elements of luck—such as the weather or British decisions—which he could not control. While most books look at these ten crucial days focusing on the military actions of the armies involved, this account also considers what was happening in other parts of the world. Leaders and ordinary people in other parts of America, in Britain, and in France were also dealing with the Revolution as they understood its condition. Without the instantaneous communication we have today, they were dealing with dated information and were missing knowledge that could influence their thoughts about the Revolution. This lack of immediate communication was also true—although to lesser extent—for the individuals directly involved in the events in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Download or read book General George Washington written by Edward G. Lengel and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2007-01-09 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The most comprehensive and authoritative study of Washington’s military career ever written.” –Joseph J. Ellis, author of His Excellency: George Washington Based largely on George Washington’s personal papers, this engrossing book paints a vivid, factual portrait of Washington the soldier. An expert in military history, Edward Lengel demonstrates that the “secret” to Washington’s excellence lay in his completeness, in how he united the military, political, and personal skills necessary to lead a nation in war and peace. Despite being an “imperfect commander”–and at times even a tactically suspect one–Washington nevertheless possessed the requisite combination of vision, integrity, talents, and good fortune to lead America to victory in its war for independence. At once informative and engaging, and filled with some eye-opening revelations about Washington, the American Revolution, and the very nature of military command, General George Washington is a book that reintroduces readers to a figure many think they already know. “The book’s balanced assessment of Washington is satisfying and thought-provoking. Lengel gives us a believable Washington . . . the most admired man of his generation by far.” –The Washington Post Book World “A compelling picture of a man who was ‘the archetypal American soldier’ . . . The sum of his parts was the greatness of Washington.” –The Boston Globe “[An] excellent book . . . fresh insights . . . If you have room on your bookshelf for only one book on the Revolution, this may be it.” –The Washington Times
Download or read book My American Revolution written by Robert Sullivan and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans tend to think of the Revolution as a Massachusetts-based event orchestrated by Virginians, but in fact the war took place mostly in the Middle Colonies—in New York and New Jersey and the parts of Pennsylvania that on a clear day you can almost see from the Empire State Building. In My American Revolution, Robert Sullivan delves into this first Middle America, digging for a glorious, heroic part of the past in the urban, suburban, and sometimes even rural landscape of today. And there are great adventures along the way: Sullivan investigates the true history of the crossing of the Delaware, its down-home reenactment each year for the past half a century, and—toward the end of a personal odyssey that involves camping in New Jersey backyards, hiking through lost "mountains," and eventually some physical therapy—he evacuates illegally from Brooklyn to Manhattan by handmade boat. He recounts a Brooklyn historian's failed attempt to memorialize a colonial Maryland regiment; a tattoo artist's more successful use of a colonial submarine, which resulted in his 2007 arrest by the New York City police and the FBI; and the life of Philip Freneau, the first (and not great) poet of American independence, who died in a swamp in the snow. Last but not least, along New York harbor, Sullivan re-creates an ancient signal beacon. Like an almanac, My American Revolution moves through the calendar of American independence, considering the weather and the tides, the harbor and the estuary and the yearly return of the stars as salient factors in the war for independence. In this fiercely individual and often hilarious journey to make our revolution his, he shows us how alive our own history is, right under our noses.
Download or read book Washington Crossing the Delaware written by Carrie Rebora Barratt and published by Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book was released on 2011 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emanuel Leutze's life-size "Washington Crossing the Delaware" commemorates the critical moment in the American Revolution when George Washington led a surprise attack against troops supporting the British forces in Trenton. When Leutze created the painting in 1850, after he had returned from America to his native Germany, he was hoping to rally support for the revolutionary movements then sweeping Europe. He sent the work to New York in 1851, and within four months 50,000 people had paid to see it. Today the painting is an icon of American visual culture and one of the most beloved objects in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2007, Leutze's masterpiece became the focus of the most ambitious conservation and reframing project in the museum's history. This book is a behind-the-scenes report on that project, prefaced by an account of the history of the painting's acquisition and display at the museum.
Download or read book Washington s Secret War The Hidden History of Valley Forge written by Thomas Fleming and published by New Word City. This book was released on 2015-12-31 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A superb retelling of the story of Valley Forge and its aftermath, demonstrating that reality is far more compelling than myth." - Gordon S. Wood The defining moments of the American Revolution did not occur on the battlefield or at the diplomatic table, writes New York Times bestselling author Thomas Fleming, but at Valley Forge. Fleming transports us to December 1777. While the British army lives in luxury in conquered Philadelphia, Washington's troops huddle in the barracks of Valley Forge, fending off starvation and disease even as threats of mutiny swirl through the regiments. Though his army stands on the edge of collapse, George Washington must wage a secondary war, this one against the slander of his reputation as a general and patriot. Washington strategizes not only against the British army but against General Horatio Gates, the victor in the Battle of Saratoga, who has attracted a coterie of ambitious generals devising ways to humiliate and embarrass Washington into resignation. Using diaries and letters, Fleming creates an unforgettable portrait of an embattled Washington. Far from the long-suffering stoic of historical myth, Washington responds to attacks from Gates and his allies with the skill of a master politician. He parries the thrusts of his covert enemies, and, as necessary, strikes back with ferocity and guile. While many histories portray Washington as a man who has transcended politics, Fleming's Washington is exceedingly complex, a man whose political maneuvering allowed him to retain his command even as he simultaneously struggled to prevent the Continental Army from dissolving into mutiny at Valley Forge. Written with his customary flair and eye for human detail and drama, Thomas Fleming's gripping narrative develops with the authority of a major historian and the skills of a master storyteller. Washington's Secret War is not only a revisionist view of the American ordeal at Valley Forge - it calls for a new assessment of the man too often simplified into an American legend. This is narrative history at its best and most vital.
Download or read book Grand Themes written by Jochen Wierich and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Explores history painting in the United States during the middle decades of the nineteenth century, as exemplified by Emanuel Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851). Includes the work of artists such as Daniel Huntington, Lilly Martin Spencer, and Eastman Johnson"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Band of Giants written by Jack Kelly and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2014-09-09 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Liberty and Freedom written by David Hackett Fischer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 880 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling author of "Washington's Crossing" and "Albion's Seed" offers a strikingly original history of America's founding principles. Fischer examines liberty and freedom not as philosophical or political abstractions, but as folkways and popular beliefs deeply embedded in American culture. 400+ illustrations, 250 in full color.
Download or read book Row Row Row the Boats written by Michael Dahl and published by Capstone. This book was released on 2004 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sing-along history lesson with music and lyrics.
Download or read book Where Washington Once Led written by Peter Osborne and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On Christmas night 1776 George Washington and twenty-four hundred men stepped ashore on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River. They went on to win decisive victories at Trenton and Princeton which changed the course of the Revolutionary War. Efforts to memorialize the heroic event were begun in 1895 and culminated with Washington Crossing State Park being formally dedicated in 1927. It took years to bring a dream of many to fruition as leaders and organizers proposed ideas, raised awareness, sought funding and then developed the properties. It is remarkable that these efforts continued moving forward given the logistical, legal and political challenges they faced. Over the years millions of visitors have come to the park and contemplated the crossing, visited the Johnson Ferry House, hiked the trails, played on the sports fields, attended park programs, picnicked at Sullivan Grove or walked their dogs. Find out why this park is one of the jewels in the crown of the state’s park system and why so many find this place irresistible.
Download or read book Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation written by George Washington and published by Bnpublishing.Com. This book was released on 2007-06-01 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Left Behinds The iPhone that Saved George Washington written by David Potter and published by Yearling. This book was released on 2016-01-12 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Percy Jackson fans will embrace this humorous time travel adventure, the first in a series, about an iPhone malfunction that sends three kids back to 1776 in time to rescue George Washington. On Christmas Day, Mel finds General George Washington lying dead as a doornail in a stable. But Mel knows that George Washington must cross the Delaware River, or the course of American history will be changed forever. Could Mel’s iPhone have sent him back in time to 1776? And can Mel and his schoolmates, know-it-all Bev and laid-back Brandon, come to the rescue? Perhaps, with a little help from two colonial kids and Benjamin Franklin himself. Debut novelist David Potter cleverly combines time travel, humor, and American history in this fast-paced adventure. For American Revolution enthusiasts, there's information about historical reenactments, additional reading, and websites. Praise for THE LEFT BEHINDS: THE IPHONE THAT SAVED GEORGE WASHINGTON “Sequel, anyone? Let’s hope so, because the concept of bringing an iPhone into the past is just too cool to stop at one episode… This is Magic Tree House all grown up, and kids who once loved that time travel conceit will be delighted all over again.” –The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books “A skillful blend of humor, history, mystery, and adventure makes for a fun, fast-paced tale that will leave readers a little wiser.” –School Library Journal “History and humor collide.” –Booklist “A new twist on time travel.” –Kirkus Reviews
Download or read book Almost a Miracle written by John E. Ferling and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 694 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the military history of the American Revolution and the grim realities of the eight-year conflict while offering descriptions of the major engagements on land and sea and the decisions that influenced the course of the war.
