REVIEW BY FRED CHIAVENTONE
The American Revolutionary War of 1775 to 1783 had plenty of ‘turning points’, as might be the case with any war that lasted for the best part of eight years, but have they not all been identified and discussed ad infinitum? This is a question which John R Maass quickly puts to rest in his provocative and illuminating new book From Trenton to Yorktow. The five episodes he has chosen may initially seem a rather odd assortment as they are not exclusively battles – and nor are the battles he has chosen necessarily American victories. But there is, however, a decided method to this apparent madness.
The opening chapter of the book focuses on General George Washington’s indubitably magnificent victories at Trenton and Princeton during the winter of 1776-1777, but, before describing those, Maass goes back in time to a much more perilous period. In July 1776, Washington, newly named as the American rebels’ commander, had deployed some 20,000 troops to defend New York – but these men were volunteers, indifferently equipped and barely trained.
His decision to disperse the men over a large area of the city was a recipe for disaster. In a series of crushing defeats over the following months, British Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis chased the American rebels out of New York. Barely holding themselves together, Washington and his dispirited, ragged army fled south-west. After a hurried withdrawal across the Delaware river into Pennsylvania, Washington regrouped his much reduced forces and that December recrossed the ice-choked river to strike the enemy by surprise – first at Trenton and then Princeton, breathing new life into the faltering rebellion.
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