The American Revolution 100: The People, Battles, and Events of the American War for Independence, Ranked by Their Significance - Hardcover

Lanning, Michael Lee

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9781402210839: The American Revolution 100: The People, Battles, and Events of the American War for Independence, Ranked by Their Significance

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1402210833 ISBN 13: 9781402210839

Publisher: Sourcebooks Inc, 2008

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The American Revolution 100 brings you to the charred battlefields and inside the maneuverings of the greatest leaders of the war that gave birth to America. In comprehensive fashion, it explains, analyzes, and ranks the war's most significant events, leaders, and battles according to their importance.

Celebrated veteran and military expert Michael Lee Lanning introduces the war's various causes and primary players. The 100 ranked entries that follow include bloody battles, outspoken politicians, military heroes, causes of the conflict, and monumental events.

The War of Independence pitted king against colonialist, monarchy against democracy, where men risked execution for treason to bring to life the model government that would inspire a world. The American Revolution 100 brings to life its battles, people, and events, including maps and illustrations.

100 of the great names and historic events of the war that gave birth to America, ranked by a decorated military veteran and author.

Beginning with Lexington and ending with Yorktown, The American Revolution 100 brings to life the defining moments, battles, people, and leaders who gave birth to a great democratic nation. In comprehensive fashion, celebrated veteran and military expert Michael Lee Lanning ranks and analyzes the war's most significant events, showing how each influenced the outcome.

Relive the memorable battles, when a country of citizen-farmers prepared themselves to take on the mightiest army in the world. Learn about the influential figures and forces of the time - from George Washington, the Continental Army, and Benjamin Franklin to William Howe, the Hessians, and George III. Included too are the parts played by America's nascent navy, Tom Paine's Common Sense, the participation of African and Native Americans, the British parliament and army, and much more.

Among the entries are:

ROBERT MORRIS
Morris, the brain behind the Revolution's finances and the inventor of the dollar sign, died with barely a penny to his name.

TRENTON, NEW JERSEY, DECEMBER 26, 1776
After a long series of defeats, support for the rebel army was drying up. Washington's victory at Trenton reignited the patriotic cause and saved the revolution.

HENRY KNOX
Henry Knox drove 55 cannons 300 miles to Boston, on poor roads and through heavy snows and miserable cold. When the cannons were finally positioned over the city, the British were forced to evacuate.

AMERICAN ALLIES
The French invented a fake firm named Hortalez & Cie, which supplied 90 percent of the gunpowder used by the rebels.

COMMON SENSE AND THE CRISIS
George Washington was so impressed by Thomas Payne's The Crisis that he had it read to all his soldiers before crossing the Delaware River.

AMERICAN MILITIAS
George Washington called militiamen "exceedingly dirty and nasty people" and a Continental Army officer recalled, "it was easier to raise the dead than a militia company."

MONMOUTH, NEW JERSEY, JUNE 28, 1778
According to legend, Mary Hayes took her husband's place as a cannon crewmember after he was wounded. Her story inspired revolutionaries across the country.

THOMAS SUMTER, AMERICAN GENERAL AND PARTISAN
Sumter recruited his soldiers with promises that their pay would be "all that they could plunder from the Loyalists."

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About the Author:

Lt. Col. Michael Lee Lanning (Texas) retired from the US Army after more than 20 years of service. He is a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War. Lanning has written 14 books on military history, including The Battle 100 and The Civil War 100.

Introduction

We hold these truths to be self evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
-Declaration of Independence
July 4, 1776

These simple, yet ambitious, words begin the declaration that became the birth certificate of the United States of America-a document that ended any chance that the rebellious colonists and the British king might settle their differences anywhere but on the battlefield. The vastly outnumbered Revolutionaries faced what seemed to be overwhelming obstacles to their independence. Many of their fellow colonists opposed the Rebellion, and others chose neutrality. Great Britain, the most powerful military power in the world at the time, had a large population and almost unlimited resources. The Americans had no united military force, no monetary system, and no governing body to support the newly declared nation. Five years after the founders signed the Declaration of Independence, the Americans accepted the surrender of the main British army in America and two years later signed a peace agreement that recognized the independence of the United States.

The opportunity for "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" achieved by the Revolutionary War led to the longest reigning democracy in history. Over the succeeding years, the United States has advanced to the status of the richest country and world's single superpower. Its revolution has served as model to those seeking independence from oppression of all kinds, and the United States remains today a beacon of hope to freedom-loving people everywhere.

Wars can change the course of history. The American Revolution ranks as the most influential conflict of all time. In the thousands of books that have been written about the war since it ended, most authors have focused on combining the divergent political and social issues with battlefield actions. A myriad of others have covered the lives of the individual military and civilian leaders or covered the specific units, battles, or campaigns. Yet, none of these works to date has attempted to rank the war's leaders, battles, and events in terms of their influence on the Revolutionary War itself.

The 100 entries that follow are not necessarily the best, greatest, largest, most powerful, or even the most famous. Rather this list ranks leaders, battles, and events in order of their influence on the war. For the ease of comparison, when one leader, battle, or event refers to another included on the list, the ranking of the referenced entry follows its name, e.g., Nathanael Greene (4), Battle of Bunker Hill (23), and the Boston Massacre (93).

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