So 2 days ago I boldly opined I had some book recommendations for MG @PatDonahoeArmy after he posted about reading Manchester’s Goodbye Darkness.

So here are my go to’s for studying these subjects. You may have others but here are mine.

1/

French and Indian War

The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War
by Fred Anderson.

You can’t understand the Rev War fully if you don’t start here first.

Revolutionary War

An excellent overview on the lead up and first 20 months of the war.

2/

Simply the best single volume written on the War. The critical Trenton and Princeton Campaign explained in detail. His description of 2nd Trenton allowed me to stand in an urban landscape and fully imagine the battle.

1776 by David McCullough a good companion. 3/

I love these 2 volumes because they describe how the 2 sides built their armies and fought. The key thing Spring brings out is the British Army had been fighting in NA since 1638. Their’s was a failure of strategy not tactics. The other shows it took the Continentals to win. 4/

2 great coverages of the Saratoga Campaign. And you can’t take Saratoga in a vacuum. It must also be seen in context of the Philadelphia Campaign and its impacts. 5/

Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, andbthe Politics of Battle by Mark Lender. The last major fight in the North and it showed the results and value of Von Steuben’s drilling at Valley Forge the previous winter. 6/

A Devil of a Whipping by Lawrence Babits. Great on Cowpens

The Road To Guilford Courthouse by John Buchanan. Great coverage of the 1780-81 Carolina Campaign

Long, Obstinate and Bloody by Babits. Guilford Courthouse and the value of Continentals vice militia
7/

Victory at Yorktown:The Campaign That Win The Revolution by Richard Ketchum

In The Hurricane’s Eye by Nathaniel Philbrick

2 great volumes in the final campaign. The 2nd does a great coverage on the Battle of the Capes.

War of 1812

1812: The War That Forged a Nation 8/

By Walter Borneman

The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels & Indian Allies by Alan Taylor

And I opened another box....another Saratoga book

9/

The Mexican War

An excellent reminder that John Eisenhower was the Chief of History for a very good reason.

Okay those are my votes...may add a few more as I go through my books & boxes

I’ll tackle the Civil War over the next few days.

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