The whites of their eyes : Bunker Hill, the first American Army, and the emergence of George Washington / Paul Lockhart.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lockhart, Paul Douglas, 1963-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Washington, George, 1732-1799.

Bunker Hill, Battle of, Boston, Mass., 1775.

Command of troops.

United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783--Campaigns.

United States.

History.

United States. Continental Army--History.

United States. Continental Army.

Washington, George.

Washington, George, 1732-1799--Military leadership.

Physical Description:

ix, 414 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Harper, [2011]

Summary:

Offers a reassessment of the first major engagement of the American Revolution by intertwining two equally important stories--the creation of America's first army and the rise of the man who led it, George Washington.

One hot June afternoon in 1775, on the gentle slopes of a hill near Boston, Massachusetts, a small band of ordinary Americans--frightened but fiercely determined--dared to stand up to a superior British force. But the first real engagement of the American Revolution and one of the most famous battles in our history, Bunker Hill was not the battle that we have been taught to believe it was. Revisiting old evidence and drawing on new research, Lockhart shows that Bunker Hill was a clumsy engagement pitting one inexperienced army against another. Lockhart tells the rest of the story, too: how a mob of armed civilians became America's first army; how George Washington set aside his comfortable patrician life to take command of the veterans of Bunker Hill; and how the forgotten heroes of 1775--though overshadowed by the more famous Founding Fathers--kept the notion of American liberty alive.--From publisher description.

Contents:

Massachusetts's war

Young soldiers who had never been in action

The grand American army

The fiercest man among the savage tribes

Elbow room

A good deal of a hubbub

Masters of these heights

The enemy's all landed at Charlestown!

Grass before the scythe

A great tho dear bought victory

New lords, new laws.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780061958861

0061958867

OCLC:

670324865