The American War for Independence was under way before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but the Continental Army didn’t have the force to back up the words. This history explores the army’s early failures in Canada, with desertion and disease common among the ranks, and how new leadership disciplined and reorganized the army and set the stage for a key victory at Saratoga in 1777.

Douglas R. Cubbison is a military historian and curator with the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. He writes about social, military and American history.

Douglas R. Cubbison
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 326
Bibliographic Info: 12 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2010
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4564-6
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5720-5
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vii
Preface. “A Desperate Rush Which Cost Too Many Brave Men” : Assault on Quebec, December 30, 1775      1

1. “Scarcely Anything to Support Nature”: Invasion of Canada to December 30, 1775      5
2. “A Mere Ghost of an Army”: Winter Before the Lady of the Snows, January–May 1776      25
3. “His Majesty’s Deluded Subjects”: British Arrival, May 6, 1776      81
4. “Enough to Make Anybody’s Blood Crawl”: Failure of American Leadership at the Affair at the Cedars, May 18 to 30, 1776      92
5. “Founded in Rashness and Executed with Timidity”: The American Attack on Three Rivers, June 7 to 11, 1776      100
6. “I Can Scarcely Imagine Any More Disastrous Scene”: The Destruction and Death of an American Army, June 1776      120
7. “General Gates Is Putting the Most Disordered Army That Ever Bore the Name into a State of Regularity and Defense”: Reconstitution at Ticonderoga, July to October 1776      150
8. “I Think We Shall Be Very Well Prepared for the British Army”: Gates Establishes a Fortified Position at Ticonderoga      180
9. “We Build a Thing Called a Gondola”: Creation of the American Advanced Guard, Skenesboro, July to September 1776      200
10. “The Enemys Fleet Attacked Ours with Great Fury”: Destruction of the American Advanced Guard on Lake Champlain, October 1776      228
11. “Our Appearance Was Indeed So Formidable”: British Advance and Withdrawal Before Ticonderoga, October 1776      250
12. “As Great Consequence as If They Had Been Defeated”: The Campaign Ends; Analysis and Conclusions      267

Chapter Notes      277
Bibliography      294
Index      311

• “Remarkable”—C&RL News.