Includes index

I. The anvil of necessity. Dark dawn of adventure --
A desperate search for advisers --
Traveler's dust --
A Virginian among New Englanders --
The war of positions --
The spreading blaze --
Foreign War or social revolution --
Providence rides a storm --
The taste of victory --
II. Fires of despair. Awaiting the blow --
The carrot and the big stick --
The enemy strikes --
If only the troops will stand by me --
Blood on the bushes --
A heavy heart --
British might displayed --
The blackest defeat --
The mutiny of General Lee --
III. The rising Phoenix. An icy river --
Where no sensible General would go --
A hopeful pessimist --
Recapture of a state --
IV. A very disagreeable dance. The enemy vanishes --
A failure of intelligence --
The prize: Philadelphia --
To bring the men to this --
V. Plots against Washington. George Washington eclipsed --
Make Washington resign --
The batteries of intrigue --
What was the Conway Cabal? --
VI. Toward a more effective army. The other Valley Forge --
General Lee rides again --
The Battle of Monmouth --
Monmouth's aftermath --
The wheel turns full circle --
VII. The French alliance. New cards in an old game --
The measure of iniquity --
The fleet that never came --
Rattlesnake Road --
Enter a Gallic army --
Tribulations of an old friend --
Treason most foul --
More education for George Washington --
The end of our tether --
Never go home again --
VIII. Another man's gamble. Forcing Washington's hand --
Down fortune's mazes --
War reduced to calculation --
The world turned upside down --
IX. The nation's most dangerous hour. But the war goes on --
Vacation without rest --
The brink of the abyss --
The road to dictatorship --
The devil's web --
X. The curtain of separation. A clouded parting --
The emptying stage --
An end and a beginning --
XI. Conclusion. Cincinnatus assayed.

This volume is dedicated to narrating the wartime deeds and searching out the wartime emotions of the man who came from civilian life during the American Revolution to lead the Continental Army and also the whole nation down the vexed and bloody road to independence. This is an account of the adventures and emotions of an individual man: how George Washington had a great trust thrust upon him; how he handled himself and what changes experience, grievous or gay, made in his knowledge and his skills and character, and what effect all this had on the history of the United States and, indeed the world. Spanning a major gulf between the past and what was then the unexplored future. Personally gentle, uneasy about witnessing bloodshed except in the excitement of battle, he fought year after year a bloody war. A political moderate who believed in complete freedom of intellect, he argued for tolerance as he led a revolution. Washington proved at what well may have been the most crucial moment in the entire history of the United States, a defender of republican principles such as the world has rarely if ever otherwise known. Recounts Washington's life served as commander of an amateur army during the American Revolution.

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