Has anyone read the book 1776 by David McCullough?

Question

I need to know his (the authors) opinion of why the battle of Brooklyn was important? I also need to know the significance of the battles of Trinton and Princeton. If you havent read the book maybe you could direct me to some web sites that might be helpful. Thank-You

Answer 1

" BROOKLYN " -If, in the autumn of 1775, a council of Washington's officers had not restrained him from a highly risky amphibious attack on Boston across the shallow Back Bay, there might never have been a Declaration of Independence. If a young officer, Henry Knox, had not had the ingenuity to conceive, and the tenacity to execute, a plan for dragging captured mortars, some weighing a ton, and cannon, some weighing two and a half tons, the 300 miles from Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain to the Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston, the British might have fought, and perhaps won, rather than evacuating the city. If after the disastrous Battle of Brooklyn, the first great battle of the war, a fog had not allowed 9,000 of Washington's soldiers to escape across the East River, the war might have effectively ended less than two months after the Declaration.

So says David McCullough in his new book ``1776,'' a birthday card to his country on this Independence Day. ``Ingratitude,'' he has said elsewhere, ``is a shabby failing,'' and he writes to inspire gratitude for what a few good men, and one great one, did in the nation's Year One.

"TRENTON" - The written record suggests that as the Americans started their march to the Delaware in bad weather on Christmas afternoon, the whole army saw the move as a final, desperate roll of the dice. With the crucial aid of skilled boatmen from New England, they got across the ice-strewn river, then marched nine miles through the night on rough roads to Trenton. The plan called for a pre-dawn attack, but the troops arrived an hour after daybreak. Alerted by their outposts, the German commander and his troops responded too slowly to stop the more numerous rebels. And in less than an hour Washington and his men had captured 900 European professionals after shooting almost 150 others, effectively destroying the whole German brigade, at very small loss to themselves. Eye-witness accounts converge on one vital point: that the Americans fought with a do-or-die desperation. No witness supports the legend that the Germans were too drunk or hung over from Christmas celebrations to fight effectively; instead, they were simply surprised, outfought, and overwhelmed by numbers. Washington quickly ordered a retreat the way they had come, to the safe side of the river.

That less than a week later an exuberant Washington would take his army, still bedraggled if more confident, back over the river into New Jersey is less easily explained, and McCullough does not try to do so, except to say that some American troops during the previous attack had crossed very late and were still exposed on the enemy side. But Washington was taking an enormous chance, with the British alerted by news of the Trenton debacle and strong reinforcements hurrying down from New York to the area. On the site of his first victory, Washington assembled the regiments to beg men whose enlistments expired at the end of the year to stay on. His rhetoric, as quoted, reminds us of Shakespeare’s Henry V before Agincourt, but he also offered a ten-dollar bounty for an extra six months of service. Enough volunteered, and he had them dig in on high ground protected by a fordable creek along the south side of Trenton, with their backs to the uncrossable Delaware. The British vanguard soon was driving in the American outposts, and Washington’s army appeared to be in a trap. Unwilling to attack at night, the British commander waited for daylight, and by then it was too late. The Americans had slipped away to their right along country roads; as lucky as they had been in escaping from Long Island four months earlier, they headed north, across the British line of communications. No evidence indicates that Washington had planned this move; he simply did what he could to escape the trap into which he had led his army.

" PRINCETON " - At Princeton, they ran into several British regiments starting their march to Trenton, ten miles away, and after fierce fighting, with General Washington displaying exemplary personal courage, destroyed them as they had destroyed the Germans the week before. Then Washington, unwilling to risk any more, led his army quickly to safety in the hills of northern New Jersey. Nothing said, at the time or later, can exaggerate the political and psychological importance of the two small military victories at Trenton and Princeton. Within a week Washington had shed his reputation for ineptitude and indecision, and become the god‑like immortal he has been ever since.

Answer 2

I examine 1776 and his books about Truman and Adams. i'm also searching ahead to his new e book, "The more effective adventure" that is scheduled to go back out in some months. He has the potential to make heritage examine like a unique.

Answer 3

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