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.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 653-661) and index.

Introduction: "my country, my honor, my life": bravery and death in war -- Pt. 1: going to war, 1775-1776 -- "Fear is not an American art": the coming of the war -- "A loss that is greater than we can bear": going to war -- Choices, 1775 -- Pt. 2: the war in the North, 1776-1779 -- "Hastening fast to a crisis": June 1775-June 1776 -- Choices, 1776 -- "Knock him up for the campaign": the Battle for New York, 1776 -- "This hour of adversity": to the end of 1776 -- Choices, 1777 -- "The caprice of war": America's pivotal victory at Saratoga -- "We rallied and broke": the campaign for Philadelphia, September-December 1777 -- Choices, 1778 -- "A respectable army": the grim year, 1778 -- Choices, 1779 -- "A band of brotherhood": the soldiers, the army, and the forgotten war in 1779 -- "We have occasioned a good deal of terror": the war at sea -- Choices, 1780 -- Pt. 3: the war in the South, 1780-1781 -- "A year filled with our disgraces": defeat in the South, 1780 -- "Southern means and Southern exertions": hope and despair, June-December 1780 -- Choices, 1781 -- "Bloody and severe": the pivotal Southern war, early 1781-- "We are suspended in the balance": Spring and Summer 1781 -- Pt. 4: American victory, 1781-1783 -- "America is ours": victory at Yorktown, 1781 -- Choices, 1782 -- "May we have peace in our time": peace and demobilization, 1782-1783 -- "Little short of a miracle": accounting for America's victory.