This book was an enjoyable read…even if it took me 6 months to finish. It’s not because I was reading other books, but because his writing style was rather strange to me. It takes a little while for me to really get into the book when I crack it open and I kept cracking it open for short moments and getting lost on the same page. But I finally finished it!

It was most interesting to read this book after finishing the George Washington biography, His Excellency as the book follows the Continental Army from July 1775 to January 1777. The one thing I would have appreciated was battlefield maps. McCullough did an incredible amount of research (a third of the book’s length is sources and bibliography) and includes nearly all of it, especially personal letters from many of the participants regarding the actions of the war.

“But those of the utmost importance have been the letters of George Washington, Nathanael Greene, Henry Knox, Joseph Reed, and Joseph Hodgkins. That these men found the time, and energy, to write all that they did, given the circumstances, is a wonder, and ought to be acknowledged as another of their great services to their country. Washington, in the time covered by this narrative…wrote no fewer than 947 letters!” (pp. 347).