This Glorious Struggle: George Washington's Revolutionary War Letters
A scholar of Washington&#x2019;s military career (General George Washington, 2005), Lengel samples Washington&#x2019;s war correspondence. In topical range and variety of recipients, the collection conveys the types of problems that came to Washington&#x2019;s attention and captures aspects of his personality as he dealt with them. Throughout the protracted war, Washington coped unendingly with army administration, extending from supplies to enlistments to discipline. Lengel&#x2019;s selections in these areas show Washington&#x2019;s sense of duty, which he repeatedly expressed as his reason for accepting the position of army commander. However, when threatened with removal in 1777&#x2013;78, he maneuvered to keep the job, as a series of letters here shows. Battles, however, are what interest most modern readers, and they receive a sense of immediacy in Washington&#x2019;s reports to Congress, usually written within hours of disengagement from combat, and covering the siege of Boston to that of Yorktown. Including personal letters that reflect Washington&#x2019;s tastes and concern with the fortunes of friends and relatives, Lengel&#x2019;s selection permits readers to trace the Revolutionary War as Washington experienced it. --Gilbert Taylor