Almost a miracle : the American victory in the War of Independence

Illustrations and Maps ; Preface ; Introduction: "My Country, My Honor, My Life": Bravery and Death in War ; PART ONE: GOING TO WAR, 1775-1776 ; 1. "Fear Is Not an American Art": The Coming of the War ; 3. Choices, 1775 ; PART TWO: THE WAR IN THE NORTH, 1776-1779 ; 4. "Hastening Fast to a Crisis": June 1775-June 1776 ; 5. Choices, 1776 ; 6. "Knock Him Up for the Campaign": The Battle for New York, 1776 ; 7. "This Hour of Adversity": To the End of 1776 ; 8. Choices, 1777 ; 9. "The Caprice of War": America's Pivotal Victory at Saratoga ; 10. "We Rallied and Broke": The Campaign for Philadelphia, September-December 1777 ; 11. Choices, 1778 ; 12. "A Respectable Army": The Grim Year, 1778 ; 13. Choices, 1779 ; 14. "A Band of Brotherhood": The Soldiers, the Army, and the Forgotten War of 1779 ; 15. "We Have Occasioned a Good Deal of Terror": The War at Sea ; 16. Choices ; PART THREE: THE WAR IN THE SOUTH, 1780-1781 ; 17. "A Year Filled With Our Disgraces": Defeat in the South, 1780 ; 18. "Southern Means and Southern Exertions": Hope and Despair, June-December 1780 ; 19. Choices, 1781 ; 20. "Bloody and Severe": The Pivotal Southern War, Early 1781 ; 21. "We Are Suspended in the Balance": Spring and Summer 1781 ; PART FOUR: AMERICAN VICTORY, 1781-1783 ; 22. "America is Ours": Victory at Yorktown, 1781 ; 23. Choices, 1782 ; 24. "May We Have Peace in Our Time": Peace and Demobilization, 1782-1783 ; 25. "Little Short of a Miracle": Accounting of America's Victory ; Abbreviations ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Index