The Boston campaign

About this book

The opening campaign of the American Revolution was the one which established the popular image of this conflict forever after. In later campaigns George Washington was to build a European-style army of reasonable proficiency, with adequate uniforms and weaponry. It was in Boston and its surrounding villages, however, that the American Revolution of legend was fought, where some of Britain's finest regiments were bested by embattled farmers and tradesmen, without uniforms and with improvised weapons. Having been defeated at the villages of Lexington and Concord, the British found themselves besieged in Boston by a hastily-assembled army of Massachusetts militiamen. While unprofessional in appearance, many of the rebels were armed with rifled hunting pieces, which could strike massed troops moving across open ground with deadly accuracy. A British attempt to storm the main rebel position at Bunker Hill resulted in the single bloodiest engagement of the war. The British were forced to withdraw by sea to Canada, ending the first phase of the Revolutionary War in an American victory. Villanova professor Victor Brooks has taken a fresh approach to the Lexington-Concord-Bunker Hill-Evacuation campaign. The political and strategic considerations of the opponents are balanced with a wealth of operational detail. Of particular interest is the account of how the well-thought-out British combined arms assault on Bunker Hill fell apart. The main text is supplemented by sidebars, detailed orders of battle and specially commissioned maps in the classic Great Campaigns style.