The Philadelphia Campaign: Volume II: Germantown and the Roads to Valley Forge

by Thomas J. McGuire

Based on soldiers' and civilians' vivid accounts--many uncovered for the first time from private collections--the story of the compelling fight for independence reaches its most desperate moments. This second in a two-volume set follows the saga from Cornwallis's triumphal march of his British and Hessian troops into Philadelphia in late September to Washington's movement of the weary Continental forces to camp at Valley Forge in December. Defeated at Brandywine, the Continental forces were worn out and ill equipped. Yet on October 4, Washington embarked on his first major offensive of the war--a surprise attack at dawn on Howe's main camp at Germantown. Only narrowly defeated, the Continentals gained valuable experience and new confidence in the possibility of victory. The seige of the Delaware River forts--one of the bloodiest and prolonged battles of the war--ended with British success in mid-November, but still Howe failed to end the war. He tried unsuccessfully to draw Washington from the fortified hills of Whitemarsh. As the Continental forces moved to Valley Forge for the winter, they would have to face their greatest challenge--survival.

Genres: American Revolution, History, Nonfiction, American History, American Revolutionary War

392 pages, Hardcover

First published June 10, 2007

About the author

Thomas J. McGuire teaches history in Malvern, PA. His work on the Battle of Paoli is considered the most complete documentation of the Revolutionary War battle, and was instrumental in preserving the battlefield as a historic site. In that book, as well as his other work, McGuire uses a wealth of primary material to record history from the American Revolutionary War, with a particular focus on Southeast Pennsylvania and Philadelphia.

Reviews

[Ffiefvoley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful read, really bring history alive with incredible depth of research. I'd highly recommend Mr. McGuire's book to anyone interested in the Philadelphia Campaign, I don't think there's any better resource for researching this specific military period.

[Kathy Dobronyi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book and resource concerning the Battle of Germantown that took place on October 4, 1777. Excellent maps, pictures, and chronological events that bring the battle to life. A wonderful resource for my story about Amos Hillyard and the event that changed the life of a Quaker youth.

[Aaron Shipman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book almost as much as volume one. I will go ahead and say, this book needs more maps. Period. It can be tough following troop movements and various locations with the limited maps included in the book. For the Battle of Germantown, I got out my Germantown board game from GMT Games just so I could have a large map to follow troop movements on. As for historical research, the author has it in spades. There is not a single page that is in the book without a quote or a reference from some primary source; whether that source has anything to do with the subject being talked about can be questionable at times. I really enjoyed this book, but think that it could have been shorter with more analysis. I like primary sources as much as the next guy but do you really need to quote three privates, two sergeants, and the captain who are all from the same unit that fought the same action and say the exact same thing? Or, when talking about the weather in Delaware at Fort Miffin, do you really need a quote from someone in Baltimore saying that it was a rainy day? I believe the author put in a lot of research for this book and it shows, but I do believe that the sources could have been trimmed down. Also, the last chapter was a chore to read. The other chapters were great. They flowed seamlessly and kept the action moving, but when it came to the last chapter, the book bogged down for 50 pages. True Howe's last campaign from Philly was an interesting read, especially if he would have pushed his attack the next day, but after that the book was just drivel of look at this primary source and that primary source I found and fluff. I do believe that this book an this series has a lot to offer its readers, but this is not for the novice reader. If you have an interest for a more detailed study of the campaign, these two books will whet your appetite but make sure to have maps to consult as you read.

[Matthew Ericson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both volumes were good. This however was the better of the two.

[Joseph Adelizzi, Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

As did volume 1, this work still has long, unsectioned chapters, though this time the author more often interjects his thoughts, opinions, and perhaps prejudices as events unfold. While I can’t say I always agreed with his interjections, I did receive them as welcomed reinforcements providing brief respites from the prolonged, sometimes jumbled, recitation of primary source documents which so many times left me exasperated over deciphering which side the quoted speaker represented.

In the end I was left humbled by the determination and courage of so many of the quoted combatants, especially when I became aware of the pomposity of my acting like some lexicological lieutenant snidely correcting every misspelling and misusage I came across as I sat within the impenetrable redoubt swathing my comfy chair, replete with a padded footrest and never-empty cup-holder. What an ass I was - and still may be, given my presumption that I am no longer one - to almost miss the depth and humanity of these personal accounts over something as silly as spelling and sentence structure.

Thank you Thomas J. McGuire for this well-researched volume which goes a long way towards bringing history to heart. And thank you, Joseph Plumb Martin, 17 year old combatant from Connecticut, for finally breaking through my “impenetrable” redoubt.

Oh look - my cup-holder is empty.

[Justinian]

2007-09 - The Philadelphia Campaign: Germantown and the Road to Valley Forge (Volume II). Thomas J. McGuire (Author) . 2007. 327 pages.


This book is the second in a two part history of the Philadelphia Campaign of 1777. Like the first book (my review: http://justinian565.livejournal.com/2... ) the author allows the participants to do most of the speaking in their own voices. He also has chosen to use copies of their maps rather then updated accurate historian produced maps. This helps the reader to view the situations as the authors experienced them. Unfortunately if you are not versed in the events this coupled with the multiple approaches and views of a single event can cause the reader to get confused. This may put some readers off, but it must be remembered that combat like many other stressful situations has a way of creating a narrow tunnel vision in the participants. This book allows the reader to share that point of view which is usually sanitized by historians trying to create a single authoritative narrative.

This book is an excellent addition to a very pivotal year in the American Revolution. I was surprised at how very close the Americans actually came to defeating the bulk of the British forces in America in 1777. Most of us are quite familiar with the result of the Battles at Saratoga, NY, but how many are familiar with the siege of Ft. Mifflin? I had heard of this battle and over viewed the site but what I did not fully understand was how important it was for the British to eliminate this American strongpoint. This strongpoint was essentially preventing re-supply of the entire British Army which was occupying Philadelphia and which was starving. They had won at Brandywine and won again at Germantown but they were essentially cut off in Philadelphia with Washington constricting the bag around them. If Ft. Mifflin had held out it is probable that Howe would have had to conduct a fighting retreat with a starving army back to his fleet.

I was also struck by the descriptions of the Battle of Germantown and how some things in the military never change through time and culture. Yet the reader is also given glimpses into how very different war and armies were back then, especially because of the social constructs of the time. Soldiering though is an eternal sameness going back to the ancients and forward to the present. These soldiers on both sides were very hard men and their stamina in the field and in marching would humble any modern army today. That they endured the lack of logistics and still managed to march and fight as they did with the pluck and spirit they had continues to be the untold story of the American Revolution. It is no wonder that Civil War soldiers held the Continentals up as the standard they were trying to match.

I was also continually struck by how they did fight these battles. Not so much on the operational or strategic level but at the tactical level. There was not as much standing shoulder to shoulder in straight lines and shooting it out as is too often portrayed. The dominance of a light infantry ethos especially among British troops will surprise many readers. They other great factor is the predominance of the bayonet as a weapon of decision. This was not the same British Army which would march against Napoleon though it is often portrayed as such.

The bibliography is excellent and will serve to foist many other titles onto my reading stack, in particular I have become interested in the writings of the Hessian Light Infantryman Johann Ewald. His observations seem quite adept given what he was experiencing.