The Road to Valley Forge: How Washington Built the Army that Won the Revolution

by John Buchanan

Acclaim for The Road to Valley Forge

""Buchanan is a master of the historical narrative . . . a host of new insights into George Washington as a leader of men.""
-Thomas Fleming, author of Liberty!: The American Revolution

""The Road to Valley Forge is an effective operational history, clearly written, judicious in its judgments and based on a careful look at the war from both sides.""
-Jeremy Black, author of War for The Fight for Independence, 1775--1783

""John Buchanan skillfully guides us through 1776 and 1777, the two most critical years of the Revolutionary War for George Washington as commander in chief. With a gift for finding the apt quotation and the telling anecdote, the author traces the growth of Washington as a commanding general and the professional development of the Continental Army.""
-Don Higginbotham, Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The Road to Valley Forge tells the whole story of Washington's growth from inexperienced backwoods general to true Commander in Chief of a professional fighting force. This warts-and-all portrait of America's greatest hero reveals a courageous and intelligent man struggling desperately to learn from his mistakes, forge a motley assortment of militiamen into a real army, and demonstrate to all of his fellow Americans that they could, indeed, become masters of their own destiny.

Genres: History, American Revolution

384 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2004

Reviews

[Stephanie Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of my favorite history books. You can tell that Buchanan is not a trained historian (he's a museum man). He does go into deep detail in regards to military maneuvers, but his informal tone and judgment of historical figures shows he was not trained to be a historical writer. Also, if he is going to go into such detail about movements of the army, he would have benefited from providing the reader more maps than just for the Battle of Germantown.

Also, the title of the book alludes the reader to believe the bulk of the book will deal with Valley Forge and how the Continental Army found itself there. Instead the book deals with the Washington's campaigns of 1777-78, and spends half a chapter dealing with Valley Forge. There are better works that cover this time period and better works that explore Valley Forge.

[Andrew Scholes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contained a lot of information about Washington that I had not heard. He did point out a lot of areas in which Washington was not all that he has been described over the years, especially in history textbooks.

[Carl T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and a great read. Buchanan makes the main characters come alive, and he’s terrific on military strategy and tactics.

[Austin Gisriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent analysis of George Washington's development as a field commander and how, as the title suggests, he built the army that won the Revolution. Buchanan is very objective in his assessment of Washington, neither sugar-coating his weaknesses, nor downplaying his strengths.

Buchanan writes directly to the reader and so The Road to Valley Forge often reads like a a pleasant and interesting conversation. He is not afraid to write in the first person, to ask us to contemplate certain historical questions, or to offer dispassionate criticism of other historians' conclusions.

Buchanan assumes a fairly high level of Revolutionary War knowledge on the reader's part. While it can be enjoyable and educational without such a background, the reader will benefit from having it.

[Jim]

This history takes you from the loss of New York City to the British through the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse. The author keeps broaching topics in the early part of the book and then quickly says something like "but we'll talk about that later", which gets kind of irritating. He refutes some stories (like Patrick Ferguson passing up a chance at taking a shot at George Washington during the Battle of Brandywine Creek because Washington had his back turned to him) that have been passed along as fact in some other histories. Overall, this book is worth reading. I find myself wanting to read more about the role Baron Von Steuben played in training the Continental Army at Valley Forge.

[R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a great book. There was something about the writing style/ the level of detail the writer goes into that killed it for me. I felt like he went into minute detail in the areas that I cared nothing for and then glossed over all of the stuff I wanted to hear more about. There are better books that cover this subject. For a barely 300 page book, it took me months to read. That pretty much says it all since I can usually cover that in 2 -4 days if the book is good.

[George Kasnic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice narrative and analysis of the embryonic Continental Army and the travails it faced.