Morristown: The Darkest Winter of the Revolutionary War and the Plot to Kidnap George Washington by William Hazelgrove
Morristown: The Darkest Winter of the Revolutionary War and the Plot to Kidnap George Washington by William Hazelgrove
In the fall of 1779, George Washington took his ten thousand men into winter camp at Morristown, New Jersey, after six long years of fighting. It would be a brutal winter of suffering, depression, starvation, betrayal, mutiny, treason, and an attempt by the British to kidnap George Washington. By the spring, only eight thousand men would be left in Morristown, with fewer than two-thirds fit for service.
Books have cemented Valley Forge as one with Omaha Beach, the Death March of Bataan, and Washington crossing the Delaware. But the winter of Valley Forge was mild in comparison to other winters. Temperatures did not plummet to unheard of levels and snowfall was normal. And the men were not starving on the scale that would later follow at Morristown.
The winter of 1779 to 1780 was the coldest in a century and would mark Washington's darkest hour, when he contemplated the army coming apart from lack of food and money, and six years of war, desertions, mutiny, the threat of a devastating attack by the British, and, incredibly, a plot to kidnap him. Yet Morristown would mark a turning point. After a long winter of suffering, Washington was joined in May by Lafayette who promised him a second fleet of French support, leading to the final defeat of the British in 1783.
Lyons Press, Hardcover, 1st Edition, 2021
THIS IS A BRAND NEW BOOK.