First among turning points
The spirit of American independence blazed in July of 1776. By December that spirit was nearly as frozen as the enemy-occupied New Jersey countryside.
Although the British had been compelled to evacuate Boston, the Continental Army and attendant forces had been roughly handled at practically every other turn after July of 1776. Superior training, experienced commanders and disciplined troops brought to bear by the British clearly put the colonials in a corner. By the end of the year wether or not the Revolution could go forward depended upon troops under George Washington winning an indisputable victory.
Richard M. Ketchum's The Winter Soldiers: The Battles For Trenton and Princeton tells the story of Washington's campaign to keep the Revolution alive on the battlefield.
Ketchum displays three great talents in his books about the American Revolution. He is a smooth, skillful writer, able to craft books that carry the reader along with intelligence and style. He knows when to let the participants in the story make their own case, quoting judiciously from a broad range of sources. And he is able to introduce ideas and personalities in a way that bind the "why" of events during the Revolution to the "where" and "who."
The Winter Soldiers is good military history. Ketchum, who commanded a subchaser in the south Atlantic during WWII, understands the problems of a military campaign. He shows the importance of supply and morale for the combatants of both sides in the conflict. And he is adept at enlarging those descriptions to include problems peculiar to a revolutionary force.
The book is also interesting political history. The author gives his readers a tour of the politics, philosophy and personalities that lead up to the battles at Trenton and Princeton. He provides a wealth of context that help explain both the combat and the necessity for it.
Readers with an appreciation for George Washington in the Revolution will especially enjoy The Winter Soldiers. While Ketchum's Decisive Day: the Battle for Bunker Hill showed the effort and effect of commanders of lower rank-captains and colonels-The Winter Soldiers is in the end the story of George Washington's real arrival as a combat leader. So much of Washington's task during the war was the preservation of his army. Ketchum writes well of Washington's long road to Trenton and Princeton. The string of retreat and defeat for the Continental Army. The political infighting and lack of financial support. But at Trenton and Princeton Washington measured the considerable risk against a unique opportunity and crafted much needed victories. Ketchum notes that : " At the time of the battles of Trenton and Princeton the number of men serving in the Continental Army against the assembled might of Great Britain was no more than the number of students in a fair-sized modern High School. Because of their accomplishments, the waning days of 1776 were not the end of everything, but a new beginning."
