1776: The Siege Book

Summary of Sections

In the first section “The Siege” the book starts on the date of October 26, 1775 with King George the third riding in his coach distressing about the war issue in America. The War officially started in Lexington and Concord, where Washington and Howe were in command of the army. The battle that followed Lexington and concord was Bunker Hill. Meanwhile the army was not prepared or ready for these battles Washington still insisted on building stronger places for attack. While Washington is dealing with that, Gage and Howe are making their decisions for taking Boston. They both agreed that they needed Dorchester Heights so they settled in for the winter. This was a very harsh winter, many people got very sick and froze. It was not good for their army.

In the second section of the book “Fateful Summer” Washington had ordered his men to march towards New York. New York was very important and needed to be protected, it was filled with loyalist and people with financial interests in the city. The New Englanders still didn't wear uniforms so it was hard to pull apart the soldiers from the citizens. America still did not have an intelligent army. General Howe is the one who accepted the British attack because secrets were given about their weaknesses. On August 26 they conducted that attack.

In the third section “The Long Retreat” Nathaniel Greene recovered and brought the troops back together to go and burn New York. He wanted to burn New York because it was filled with mostly British troops. The continental congress wanted nothing to do with this. George Washington and Greene led the army into the battle of Trenton. They out smarted the Hessians and had people go around to distract them while Washington and his troop crossed the Delaware River. This was a huge Turing point for America because this battle was considered the end of the war and we had just won it.