The British are Coming

 The British are Coming

By Rick Atkinson

Dad gifted me this book on Valentine's Day to mark the semiquincentennial of the beginning of the
American Revolution. Which, of course, started in 1775. We actually went to Boston last year and saw a re-enactment of Paul Revere's row across the Charles to begin his famous ride north.

This is a detailed -- and I mean detailed -- account of the first two years of the war, beginning with Lexington and Concord and ending with American victories at Trenton and Princeton.

Those successes were badly needed. One of my takeaways from the book is just how tenuous the American situation was in those early years. I knew it, but forgot it. After Bunker Hill and an eventual successful siege of Boston, there was a long stretch of blunders that, in many instances, nearly crushed the army. There was disaster in Quebec and in New York. Meanwhile troops lived what seemed like awful lives with not enough food. No wonder many of them went back to their farms when their enlistments were up. 

Luckily for the Americans, the British were pretty blundery too. Howe had several chances to obliterate the rebellion, but just couldn't seem to make the decisive move that would do it. The arrogance of British officers led them to underestimate the colonists, with deadly results.

This is the first nonfiction book I've read in a while. My ability to keep with it, at 564 pages, owed much to Atkinson's writing. He does know how to turn a phrase. Not sure yet whether I'll pick up the next volume when 2027 rolls around.