Washingtonã¢â‚¬â„¢s General Nathanael Greene and the Triumph of the American Revolution Book Review

In The Hurricane's Center

"Nathaniel Philbrick is a masterly storyteller. Here he seeks to elevate the naval battles between the French and British to a central place in the history of the American Revolution. He succeeds, marvelously."–The New York Times Book Review

The thrilling story of the twelvemonth that won the Revolutionary War from the New York Times bestselling author of In the Eye of the Sea and Valiant Ambition.

In the fall of 1780, afterwards five frustrating years of war, George Washington had come to realize that the only style to defeat the British Empire was with the assist of the French navy. But every bit he had learned after 2 years of trying, coordinating his army's movements with those of a fleet of warships based thousands of miles away was next to impossible. And so, on September 5, 1781, the incommunicable happened. Recognized today as one of the virtually important naval engagements in the history of the world, the Boxing of the Chesapeake–fought without a single American send–made the subsequent victory of the Americans at Yorktown a virtual inevitability.

In a narrative that moves from Washington's headquarters on the Hudson River, to the wooded hillside in North Carolina where Nathanael Greene fought Lord Cornwallis to a vicious draw, to Lafayette's brilliant series of maneuvers across Tidewater Virginia, Philbrick details the ballsy and suspenseful yr through to its triumphant conclusion. A riveting and wide-ranging story, full of dramatic, unexpected turns, In the Hurricane'south Heart reveals that the fate of the American Revolution depended, in the finish, on Washington and the sea.

Reviews

"Nathaniel Philbrick demonstrates once again that he is a masterly storyteller…As a writer, I'grand envious of Philbrick's talents, simply as a reader, I'm grateful." — Thomas E. Ricks,The New York Times Book Review

"Nathaniel Philbrick's masterful new expect at the American Revolutionary War'south cease days isn't quite revisionist history, only it comes shut. With both hands, he grabs the reader's head and turns information technology towards the sea…. It's a startling accept on a familiar history that ane might await from this author."—NPR.org

"It is some other Philbrick masterpiece that will engage and entertain readers for generations." —Armed services History Magazine

"A tense, richly detailed narrative of the American Revolution"— Kirkus Reviews

"Philbrick follows up his previous popular history illuminating bottom-known aspects of the Revolutionary War with another insightful and accessible business relationship…This thought-provoking history will deepen readers' understanding of how the U.S. achieved its independence."— Publishers Weekly , starred Review

"Historian Philbrick is ane of the most prominent popular-history writers in impress today, and he will accept another hit with this chronicle of the events that led to the French navy joining in to achieve a decisive victory for the newly coalescing United States in its State of war of Independence from United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland in 1781. All readers interested in the Revolutionary War, and specially fans of naval history, will find Philbrick'south fresh account rewarding, right through the epilogue describing what happened to many of the key figures going forward." —Booklist

"Drawing on letters, journals and sea logs, Philbrick manages to impart the immediacy of breaking news to his descriptions of marches, skirmishes and battles. From describing crucial shifts in the wind during naval conflicts to detailing the unimaginable horror of war wounds, he places the reader in the midst of the fray …In the Hurricane'southward Eye is illustrated with an array of useful maps and a section that reveals what happened to the principal American, French and British players after the state of war." — BookPage

"A gripping narrative about the year that won the Revolutionary State of war." — New York Postal service

"Magnificent… Philbrick's writing is only superb, and while he manages to incorporate many marvelous and little known stories and vignettes, the book reads almost like a Tom Clancy thriller, with political intrigue, international machinations, and suspense keeping the pages turning even if the reader is already basically familiar with the story…. This book will delight, educate, and entertain while information technology brings to light the genius, risk, and sacrifice that finally brought about America's independence."— NY Journal of Books

"Readers of Revolutionary War history volition be enrapt by the blow-by-blow detail of this lively narrative, which is supported past endless letters and periodical entries from key participants." —Library Journal

"…told with all the zest and eloquence [Philbrick'south] millions of readers have come to expect. Philbrick is right to discover that this epic afternoon of cannon fire on the coastal body of water-lanes is largely disregarded in pop accounts of the Revolution;In the Hurricane'due south Center is exactly the kind of rousing narrative account it deserves." — Christian Scientific discipline Monitor

"The author, an accomplished pop historian whose previous books includeMayflower andIn the Heart of the Bounding main, excels when writing about sailors and the ocean. He vividly renders the interplay of skill and chaos in naval combat by massive fleets, likewise as the fury of hurricanes…In the Hurricane'southward Centre delivers on the author's hope to 'put the sea where it properly belongs: at the middle of the story.'"— Wall Street Journal

"[IN THE HURRICANE'Southward EYE] is probably the kickoff time that a historian has provided a fresh business relationship of the Battle of Chesapeake in such detail…This well-researched book is packed with new knowledge and perspectives on the Battle of Chesapeake and the Revolutionary War. No matter how much you know about the history of the Revolutionary State of war,IN THE HURRICANE'South Eye will certainly add to your knowledge." — Washington Book Review

"WithIN THE HURRICANE'S Center, Philbrick strives 'to put the body of water where it properly belongs: at the center of the story.' He is eminently qualified to do so, existence both an accomplished sailor and an author who has written brilliantly on maritime history. That he is too able to bring life and suspense to the land portion of the war makes for a complete and satisfying picture of one of America'southward greatest achievements." —Chapter sixteen

"Philbrick'south magnificent capstone of his trilogy of books about the Revolutionary War sheds low-cal on bottom-known aspects of the terminal twelvemonth of the disharmonize that led to the near miraculous Franco-American victory in Yorktown…This meticulously researched reinterpretation of the Revolutionary War offers a much-needed balanced presentation…It is a vivid, richly detailed account of the last battles that educates and entertains…Nathaniel Philbrick's writing is impeccable. The book incorporates many petty-known vignettes nigh the war and reads similar a thriller." — The Missourian

"The final book in [Philbrick'due south] trilogy on the American Revolution, showcases the same research and storytelling skills that fabricated the beginning two books,Bunker Hill andValiant Ambition, successful. Philbrick brings a third forcefulness toIn the Hurricane's Eye a personal understanding of sailing — and how elements like wind direction and currents could change the course of bounding main warfare in the days before steam and diesel engines." — St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Philbrick illuminates how a combination of innovative sailing and expert fortune led to victory in the Chesapeake for the more often than not-French ships, which were a couple changes of wind management away from losing everything." — Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"A groovy read. In true Philbrick way, it features a flowing narrative with engaging details and interesting anecdotes about America'southward struggle to proceeds its independence while providing insight into Washington's brilliance as one of the leading military commanders of his era." — The Patriot Ledger

"Nathaniel Philbrick has written another masterwork of narrative history with flowing prose and heady descriptions of the events leading up to the climactic Battle of Yorktown in 1781… IN THE HURRICANE'S Middle is eminently satisfying and thoroughly engrossing. Philbrick's keen eye for detail and shine writing style makes this volume a treasure for serious history fans and casual readers akin." — Providence Journal

"Philbrick tells the tale with vivid detail and action…In the Hurricane's Eye is a fine improver to Philbrick's past sea stories and a strong determination to his American Revolution books." — Valdosta Daily Times

"Philbrick is a consummate storyteller. He adds a man element to the granite statues of our national narrative, without toppling those statues. He shows the famous, the infamous, and the unknown foot soldiers in the light of their ain personalities." — The Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror

"Revolutionary triumph…Adding a sailor's perspective, Philbrick writes deftly, with enough military analysis to satisfy the interested reader." —The Guardian

"A tension-filled and riveting business relationship of the alliance that bodacious American independence. Philbrick is a master of narrative, and he does not disappoint as he provides a meticulous and oft hair-raising account of a naval state of war betwixt France and England and a land war that pitted American and French troops against British regulars and Loyalist volunteers…Philbrick offers finely drawn portraits of men whose characters shaped history." —The Washington Mail service

"[Philbrick] brings to historical events lots of petty ironies and $.25 of both humor and tragedy that are fascinating…In that location's and then much to like and enjoy virtually a volume of this caliber. Nathaniel Philbrick remains one of our better writers of American history." —The Mercury

"At its cadre, of class, this is a story of America's independence; but the lesson for us today is the vital importance of allies, partners, and friends in the earth — even for our uniquely powerful nation. [A] cautionary tale and bright guidepost to understanding the risks and opportunities of the 21st century."—James Stavridis, PhD; Admiral, US Navy (Retired); Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, 2009-2013; Dean Emeritus, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Dean, 2013-2018)

"In the Hurricane's Eye is a well-researched and well-written book that offers a thrilling account of sea battles in the historic period of sail, too equally land battles and a portrait of the amazing historical characters who led and fought the battles of the American Revolution." —The Washington Times

"a fast and often dramatically written account…Philbrick marshals his extensive inquiry smoothly." —The Dallas Morning time News

"engrossing…a compelling, detailed await at the jigsaw puzzle of events that led to the stop of the war."
—Dark-brown University Alumni Magazine

"[A] superb work of history [that] fascinated me…provides pregnant lessons every bit nosotros seek to understand the complex international globe we face today. The first lesson for usa today is the vital importance of allies, partners, and friends in the world — fifty-fifty for our uniquely powerful nation…Second, equally has so often been the case in world events, control of the seas is crucial to important geostrategic outcomes. Yorktown is another reminder that big doors can swing on seemingly small hinges."
—Bloomberg Opinion

"Clear, vivid, and oftentimes revealing,In the Hurricane'due south Middle returns the maritime elements of American victory in the Revolution to center phase. [Philbrick'southward] ability to find instructive quotations from the primary sources and the modest details that innovate verisimilitude has been well-established in his writing on American history, and this new volume does non disappoint…The book is a brisk and engaging read that offers a great deal to both war machine historians and full general readers."
— BJ Armstrong, WarOnTheRocks.com

"Packed with revealing information and high drama,In the Hurricane'southward Center is a must-read for any aficionado of the American Revolution."— Philadelphia Inquirer

"Have that high school American history book from your shelf and tear out the pages describing the stop of the revolutionary war. WithIn the Hurricane's Heart: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown, pop historian Nathaniel Philbrick sets the record straight: A naval boxing decided the outcome…An extraordinary work by an extraordinary historian."— The Florida Times-Wedlock

Interview

Q: Your two previous books,Bunker LomaandValiant Appetite,have given readers a new mode of looking at the American Revolution. With IN THE HURRICANE'S EYE, y'all return to the subject, focusing on the events leading up to Yorktown, the siege that ultimately bankrupt a years-long stalemate with the British and earned America her freedom. What drew you back to this time-flow, and what new, noteworthy, or interesting things volition readers take abroad from it?

A: Even earlier I finishedValiant Ambition, which ends with the traitor Benedict Arnold's unsuccessful attempt to surrender the fortress at W Point to the British, I knew I had to meet the story of the American Revolution to the end.  I was too emotionally involved with all these amazing characters—Arnold, Lafayette, Hamilton, Nathaniel Greene, Henry Knox, and particularly George Washington—to simply walk away from the time catamenia.  I also knew that what happened next—the action-packed twelvemonth of Yorktown—made for an incredible story. And being a writer who has always had an interest in the ocean, the fact that the victory at Yorktown was preceded by non one merely two important naval battles between the French and the British, made this a volume I had to write.

Q: In chronicling the concluding year of the Revolution, an incredibly nuanced portrait of George Washington emerges. Throughout your research, what surprised you most almost the general?

A:  Our epitome of Washington is entirely land-bound.  We think of him as a Virginia planter, a surveyor, and a full general who was about always astride his horse.  But he likewise had a strong connection to the water, especially when it came to the trophy and rivers of his upbringing in the Virginia Tidewater.  For most of the war, the Continental army was stationed on the Hudson River, above British-occupied New York. Over the years, Washington adult the habit of steering the vessels that were used to send his entourage upwards and down the river, andIN THE HURRICANE'S Heart begins with an account of him navigating the gunkhole begetting the envoy from France through a dangerous squall.  This is not the George Washington with whom most of us are familiar, and it was his understanding of the importance of sea power that ultimately made possible the victory at Yorktown.

I was also surprised by howemotionalWashington was during the yr of Yorktown.  At one point he erupts in anger at Alexander Hamilton, at another he is literally leaping with joy when he learns that the French fleet nether Admiral de Grasse has sailed into the Chesapeake.  Information technology was fascinating to sentry Washington get whipsawed by the events of that amazing yr.

Q: Many readers might be surprised to know that the French weren't exactly enamored of their American allies. The French leadership was securely suspicious of the American people's commitment to the state of war effort and viewed Washington's early preference for attacking British-occupied New York as stubborn and myopic. In many ways, the tension-filled political climate during the Revolutionary War was very similar to today's. What lessons can our current political leaders learn from Washington, who seemed to prioritize America's alliance with the French over his own ego and setbacks?

A:  I think there is a tendency to run into America's alliance with French republic during the Revolutionary State of war as a kind of platonic partnership, but it was anything only.  Time and again during the yr leading upwards to Yorktown, Washington was driven to nigh distraction by the actions of the French leadership, but he never permit his emotions imperil his relationship with his marry.  As Washington said at ane indicate, he was interim on "the swell scale," and he could not let his personal interests or frustrations to interfere with winning the war. His patience, his power to lay aside his own ego for the greater good of his country was what won u.s. the Revolution.

Q: In the epilogue of IN THE HURRICANE'Due south EYE, you note that Washington recognized the pernicious effects of slavery and that he was the merely slaveholding Founding Father to free his ain slaves. Since slavery is still at the root of some of today's biggest cultural divides—can y'all elaborate more than on how Washington, at the terminate of his life and nigh clairvoyantly, finally came to realize slavery would threaten the stability of our Wedlock.

A:  Even before the Revolutionary War was over, Washington was because means of divesting himself of his slaves. But that did not mean he was willing to come out publicly against slavery.  In fact, at Yorktown he insisted on the retrieval of the slaves who had escaped to the British, and when he became President he took extraordinary measures to retrieve the enslaved homo who fled from his household in Philadelphia.  By the end of his life, however, he came to acknowledge (along with Thomas Jefferson) that the biggest threat to the time to come of the United states came from slavery. Unlike Jefferson, Washington actually did something to make those concerns known by including a provision in his will that freed the 124 slaves he owned at Mount Vernon.  It's only speculation, merely I retrieve it's pretty clear Washington so valued the importance of the Union that he never would have gone the way of Robert E. Lee and taken upwards arms against the nation he had worked and then hard to assist create.

Q: IN THE HURRICANE'S EYE is, substantially, the culmination of your twenty-year appointment with American history and its relationship with the sea. Here, you highlight how the Atlantic Ocean, the eastward declension's rivers and inlets, fortuitous hurricane'due south and other weather patterns set up the stage for America's triumph over the British. Tin can y'all elaborate on this betoken?

A: SinceIn the Centre of the Bounding main(2000) I have been making the point that earlier there was the wilderness of the American West, in that location was the wilderness of the ocean.  Only I have to say even I was surprised past the impact that water had on the course of the Revolutionary War. As Washington realized from the very beginning of the alliance, the only way to defeat the British was with the assist of the French navy.  Only then could he intermission the British navy's stranglehold on the Eastern Seaboard and win the victory that made possible American independence. Ultimately the course of the war came down to America'south proximity to the sea, the watery realm that I've been writing virtually since I moved to Nantucket 32 years agone.

Merely for me, it goes back even farther than that.  I grew up racing sailboats, and in 1973, when I was 16 years sometime, I was the youngest competitor in the Sunfish World championships in Martinique, where I sailed in the aforementioned bay that sheltered de Grasse's fleet in 1781.   Several months later on I raced in the Sunfish Northward Americans at Fort Monroe, Virginia, at the very tip of the peninsula formed by the James and York Rivers, not far from where the French fleet lay at anchor on the day of the Battle of the Chesapeake.  Dorsum then, I was much more interested in racing sailboats than American history, just now information technology seems like fate that as a teenager I sailed in the same waters plied by de Grasse's fleet in 1781.

Q: In the book, y'all propose that the Battle of the Chesapeake, which fabricated the siege at Yorktown possible, is not simply ane of the near important naval engagements in the history of the earth just also one of the most misunderstood. What is then unique about this battle?

A: The Boxing of the Chesapeake is frequently looked to every bit a mere warm up for the main event at Yorktown, but in reality the siege would accept never taken place without the French naval victory, a battle fought without a single American ship.  It may non be the message a lot of Americans want to hear, but we wouldn't be an independent nation without the intervention of the French navy, whose heroic performance at the Chesapeake made the more famous victory at Yorktown a mere fait accompli.

Some other betoken:  Although de Grasse rightly gets a lot of the credit for this historic victory, he did make several strategic and tactical mistakes earlier and during the battle.  Every bit de Grasse later acknowledged, information technology was Helm Louis-Antoine de Bougainville and the handful of ships in the French vanguard that did all the fighting. For my money, Bougainville (who was the first Frenchman to circumnavigate the earth and for whom the Bougainvillea bloom is named) is the unrecognized hero of the Boxing of the Chesapeake.

Q: You spent the better part of a decade studying, researching, and writing 3 books about the American Revolution. With the third volume now finished, are there one or ii things that you'd like readers to understand that might contradict what they were taught in the classroom?

A: When I was growing up, the story of the American Revolution was nigh how a grouping of citizen soldiers rose up to defeat the mightiest military machine ability on earth and thereby threw off the shackles of British tyranny and won the states our independence.  Just every bit I've come to empathise, information technology's a lot more complicated than that. The denizen soldiers may take started the Revolution, merely it was the French that finished it—something that would accept never happened without George Washington's realization that victory depended on the intercession of a powerful ally.  From the very get-go, this country depended on other nations—something that is as true today every bit it ever was.

Q: How did it feel finishing this trilogy after spending then much time and energy studying it?

A:  It's strange, but I was gripped by an overwhelming sense of sadness.  After close to ten years with these characters information technology was hard to permit them get.  I had go so involved in Washington'southward story that I had hoped he would finally find some well-earned peace at the terminate of the war.  But Congress made certain that wasn't going to happen when its delegates failed to provide the Continental army with its promised pay, creating wide-spread discontent among his officer corp.

I ended up finishingIN THE HURRICANE'S EYE on Christmas Eve, the same mean solar day of the year that Washington returned to Mt. Vernon after surrendering his commission to Congress in Annapolis.  Needless to say, it was a unlike kind of Christmas for me after 8 years with His Excellency and the American Revolution.

Q: What'southward next?

A:  My wife Melissa and I and our dog Dora are going on a road trip.  When Washington was elected President in 1789 he realized that something needed to be done to create a sense of solidarity in the new nation, so he decided he must visit all thirteen states.  It was a journey that took him as far due north as Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and equally far s as Savannah, Georgia, and we've already begun post-obit in his footsteps. It'southward going to be a unlike kind of book for me, part travelogue, role history.  I tin can't wait to get back on the route.

Media

Extract

Preface

The Country and the Sea

For five years, two armies had clashed along the edge of a vast continent.  One side, the Rebels, had the advantage of the country.  Even when they lost a battle, which happened more often than not, they could retire into the countryside and look for the next chance to attack.

The other side, the Empire, had the reward of the sea.  With its armada of powerful warships (just i of which mounted more than cannons than the entire Rebel regular army possessed), it could assail the Rebels' seaside cities at volition.

But no thing how many littoral towns the Empire might take, information technology did non have enough soldiers to occupy all of the Rebels' territory.  And without a significant navy of its own, the Rebels could never inflict the blow that would win them their independence.  The war had devolved into a stalemate, with the Empire hoping the Rebels' rickety government would shortly plummet, and with the Rebels hoping for the miraculous intervention of a powerful ally.

Ii years before, one of the Empire's perennial enemies, the Rival Nation, had joined the war on the Rebels' behalf.  Most immediately the Rival had sent out its own fleet of warships.  Just and so the sea had intervened.

When France entered the American Revolutionary State of war in the spring of 1778, George Washington had dared to hope his new ally would put victory within reach.  Finally, the British navy's concord on the Atlantic seaboard was about to exist broken.  If the French succeeded in establishing what Washington called "naval superiority," the enemy'south army would be left open to attack from not only the country but also the sea.  Simply later on two and a half years of trying, the French had been unable to contain the British navy.

First, an inexplicably protracted Atlantic crossing had prevented French Admiral d'Estaing from trapping the enemy's armada in Philadelphia.  Soon later that, d'Estaing had turned his attention to British-occupied New York but to call off the attack for fear his ships would run aground at the bar across the harbor oral cavity.  A few weeks after that, a tempest off the coast of southern New England had prevented d'Estaing from engaging the British in the naval battle that promised to exist a glorious victory for France.  Since and so, a botched amphibious assail at Savannah, Georgia, had marked the just other significant activity on the role of the French navy, a portion of which now lay frustratingly dormant at Newport at the southern terminate of Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay.  By the fall of 1780, amid the aftershocks of devastating defeats at Charleston and Camden in Due south Carolina and Benedict Arnold's treasonous attempt to surrender the fortress at West Indicate to the enemy, Washington had come to wonder whether the ships of his conservancy would ever appear.

For the last two years he'd been locked in an unproductive standoff with Sir Henry Clinton in and around British-occupied New York.  What fighting had occurred had been, for the most function, in the South, where British full general Cornwallis sought to build upon his recent victories past pushing into North Carolina.  Betwixt the northern and southern theaters of the state of war lay the inland sea of the Chesapeake, which had enjoyed a menses of relative placidity since the early days of the conflict.

All that changed in Dec of 1780, when Clinton sent his newest brigadier full general, the traitor Benedict Arnold, to Virginia.  Having already dispatched the Rhode Islander Nathanael Greene to practice boxing with Cornwallis in the Carolinas, Washington sent the young French nobleman whom he regarded as a surrogate son, the Marquis de Lafayette, in pursuit of Arnold.

Thus began the movement of troops that resulted nine months later in Cornwallis's entrapment at the shore-side hamlet of Yorktown when a big fleet of French warships arrived from the Caribbean.  As Washington had long since learned, coordinating his army'southward movements with those of a fleet of canvas-powered men-of-war based two thousand miles away was virtually impossible.  Only in the late summertime of 1781, the impossible happened.

And and then, just a few days later, a armada of British warships appeared.

The Battle of the Chesapeake has been called the most important naval date in the history of the world.  Fought outside the entrance of the bay between French admiral Comte de Grasse's twenty-4 ships of the line and a comparable fleet commanded past British Admiral Thomas Graves, the battle inflicted severe enough damage on the Empire's ships that Graves returned to New York for repairs.  By preventing the rescue of 7,000 British and German soldiers nether the command of General Cornwallis, de Grasse's victory on September 5, 1781, made Washington'due south subsequent triumph at Yorktown a virtual fait accompli.  Peace would not be officially declared for another two years, but that does not change the fact that a naval battle fought betwixt the French and the British was largely responsible for the independence of the United States.

Despite its undeniable significance, the Boxing of the Chesapeake plays merely a pocket-size part in most popular accounts of the war, largely because no Americans participated in it.  If the sea figures at all in the story of the Revolutionary War, the focus tends to be on the heroics of John Paul Jones off England's Flamborough Head, even though that two-ship engagement had piffling impact on the overall direction of the disharmonize.  Instead of the sea, the traditional narrative of Yorktown focuses on the allied army's long overland journeying south, with a special emphasis on the collaborative relationship between Washington and his French counterpart the Comte de Rochambeau one time they arrived in Virginia.  In this view, the meet betwixt the French and British fleets was a mere prelude to the principal event.  In the business relationship that follows, I hope to put the ocean where it properly belongs:  at the eye of the story.

As Washington understood with a perspicacity that none of his military peers could match, just the intervention of the French navy could achieve the victory the times required.  Six months before the Battle of the Chesapeake, during the wintertime of 1781, he had urged the French to send a large fleet of warships to the Chesapeake in an attempt to trap Benedict Arnold in Portsmouth, Virginia.  What was, in effect, a dress rehearsal for the Yorktown campaign is essential to understanding the evolving, complex, and sometimes begrudging relationship between Washington and Rochambeau.  Every bit nosotros will run across, the two leaders were non the selfless military partners of American fable; each had his ain jealously guarded agenda, and it was only after Washington reluctantly—and angrily—acquiesced to French demands that they began to work in concert.

Ultimately, the course of the Revolutionary War came down to America'due south proximity to the sea—a place of storms and headwinds that no one could command.  Instead of an inevitable march to victory, Yorktown was the result of a hurried blitz of seemingly random events—from a hurricane in the Caribbean area, to a bloody boxing amid the woods near North Carolina's Guilford Courthouse, to the loan of 500,000 pesos from the Spanish citizens of Havana, Cuba—all of which had to occur earlier Cornwallis arrived at Yorktown and de Grasse sailed into the Chesapeake.  That the pieces finally roughshod into place in September and October 1781 never ceased to astonish Washington.  "I am sure," he wrote the post-obit bound, "that in that location never was a people who had more than reason to acknowledge a divine interposition in their affairs than those of the United states."

The victory at Yorktown was improbable at best, only information technology was also the result of a strategy Washington had been pursuing since the commencement of the French alliance. This is the story of how Washington's unrelenting quest for naval superiority fabricated possible the triumph at Yorktown.  It is likewise the story of how, in a supreme human action of poetic justice, the last engagement of the war brought him dorsum to the home he had not seen in half-dozen years.  For it was here, on a river in Virginia, that he first began to learn about the wonder, power, and ultimate indifference of the body of water.

Excerpted from In the Hurricane'south Eye by Nathaniel Philbrick. Copyright © 2018 by Nathaniel Philbrick. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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