This Glorious Struggle: George Washington's Revolutionary War Letters
A scholar of Washington’s military career (General George Washington, 2005), Lengel samples Washington’s war correspondence. In topical range and variety of recipients, the collection conveys the types of problems that came to Washington’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’s selections in these areas show Washington’s sense of duty, which he repeatedly expressed as his reason for accepting the position of army commander. However, when threatened with removal in 1777–78, 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’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’s tastes and concern with the fortunes of friends and relatives, Lengel’s selection permits readers to trace the Revolutionary War as Washington experienced it. --Gilbert Taylor