George Washington's Revenge: How General Washington Turned Defeat into the Strategy That Won the Revolution

by Arthur S. Lefkowitz

In late August 1776, a badly defeated Continental Army retreated from Long Island to Manhattan. By the end of September, George Washington’s inexperienced army had been forced out of New York into New Jersey and, by the end of the year, into Pennsylvania. During this dark night of the American Revolution—“the times that try men’s souls”—Washington began developing the strategy that would win the war. In this illuminating account, Arthur Lefkowitz reveals how George Washington turned defeat into victory.

During his retreat across New Jersey, Washington reconceived the war: keep the army mobile, target small parts of the British Army, rely on surprise and deception, form guerrilla units, and avoid large-scale battles. This new strategy first bore fruit in the crossing of the Delaware on Christmas night 1776 and the attack on the British at Trenton and Princeton. From there, Washington took up winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey, and moved into the mountains, an ideal position from which to check British movements toward Philadelphia or north up the Hudson. The British tried and failed several times to coax Washington into a decisive battle. Stymied, the British were forced to attack Philadelphia by sea, and they would not be able to seize Philadelphia in time to support the British invasion of upstate New York which ended in defeat at Saratoga.

Lefkowitz relies on a lifetime of deep research on the Revolutionary War and close knowledge of New Jersey to tell this exciting, important story whose impact rippled throughout the rest of the war.

360 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2022

Reviews

[Johnny G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much credit is due to the author, who painstakingly described every key detail that was relevant to Washington’s maneuvering of the Continental army in and around north-central New Jersey in the end of 1776 and 1777. I enjoyed this book because I can picture where many of the key scenes are today, since I live in the area. I also had a lot of questions answered after Washington drove back the British in January 2nd, 1777. The ineptitude of the British - so many mistakes - and the well-conceived plans by Washington to outfox the world’s best army at the time should never go unnoticed. I skipped the last 80 or so pages of notes from each chapter.