January 10 2020

In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown (2018)
By Nathaniel Philbrick

Philbrick wrote two earlier tales of the American War for Independence: Bunker Hill and Valiant Ambition.  As in the earlier titles, he introduces the reader to key characters and events to provide new perspectives.  Here, besides Gen George Washington, we meet General (Marquis de) Lafayette, Gen (Comte de) Rochambeau, and Admiral de Grass who partnered with Washington to defeat the English at the naval battle of the Chesapeake.  On the British side are Gen Cornwallis, mourning the death of his young wife; Gen Benedict Arnold, whose traitorous presence served to rally the colonial forces; Adm Rodney, whose painfully enlarged prostate caused him to head back to England for medical care, leaving the Battle of the Chesapeake to the much less able Adm Graves. The author demonstrates that matters of luck (or Providence) - such as Adm Graves' illness and absence, the climate and wind at sea, and decisions by the British to delay marches or sailings at crucial intervals - played greater roles than just the skill or numbers of militia on the colonists' side.  We see that the Battle of the Chesapeake, which was fought by the British and French navies, with financial assistance from the Spanish (but no colonial participants) laid the foundation for the crucialAmerican victory at Yorktown.

These leaders become real to us in a moving way that many other popular histories neglect.  Gen Lafayette, for example, leading the colonial forces in Virginia, had a personal interest in engaging Gen William Phillips, leader of the British forces in that colony.  For, while Lafayette was still a toddler, in August 1759, Gen Phillips had directed a cannon shot at the Battle of Minden in Prussia, killing the Marquis's father.  And it was when Gen Washington suffered some of the most discouraging defeats of the war that he would write to his cousin Lund to oversee improvements to Washington's beloved Mount Vernon - constructing a porch that overlooked the river or adding a room on one side - anticipating a day when this war would be over and he could return home at last.  Finally, the war does end, and perhaps most touching is when Washington addresses congress to urge support for a motion; he starts reading a letter, only to find he can't make out the words.  He pauses, asking that he be permitted to put on his spectacles, for not only has he grown gray in the service of his country, but also blind.  No one in the room had ever seen their leader wearing glasses, a "sign of human frailty that overwhelmed them.  There was something so natural in this appeal...it forced its way to the heart, and you might see sensibility moisten every eye." (p 250)

As usual, the author has included extensive notes and a bibliography, but also a helpful epilogue cataloguing the aftermath of all of the major figures in the Battle of the Chesapeake and victory at Yorktown.