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Prelude to glory
In epic style, the new historical fiction series Prelude to Glory chronicles the miraculous events that gave birth to a new nation. In Our Sacred Honor, the first volume in the series, master storyteller Ron Carter presents the early events of the Revolutionary War through the eyes of common people. We meet the heroes, but we see them through the eyes and hearts of the soldiers and the sailors, men and women, who came out of the shops, fields,
..."These are the times that try men's souls," writes journalist Thomas Paine at the end of 1776, a dark time in America's struggle for freedom. As the dramatic events depicted in volume 2 of the monumental Prelude to Glory series show, the high price of liberty for which the colonists fought would include great sacrifice and endurance—even in the face of apparent defeat. Focusing primarily on events between June and December 1776, this installment
...By the end of 1776, the Continental army is faced with the overwhelming truth that they are losing the Revolution. The British have pummeled them with a series of bloody battles that have shattered the American army and have forced them into a desperate retreat. Now, the American camp crouches helplessly on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River as the British move more than three thousand Hessian soldiers into position. Only the black waters
...In 1777, aiming to crush the American rebellion and win for himself a lasting fame, British General John Burgoyne sets out from Canada with a massive army. Losing the help of his Indian allies and slowed by the nearly impassable terrain, the flamboyant Burgoyne finds himself locked in the battle of his life at a place called Saratoga. There, under the heroic leadership of General Benedict Arnold, the rustic American force claims an unlikely victory,
...The summer of 1777 proves to be a difficult and discouraging time for General George Washington and his poorly equipped and undisciplined Continental Army. Campaigning along the eastern seaboard, they are pitted against General William Howe and his superbly trained and better provisioned British forces. The inspired Americans make a good showing at the battles of Brandywine Creek and Germantown, but in the end they absorb two disappointing defeats.
...The surrender of British General Charles Cornwallis and his entire army to the United States at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781, stunned the world. The thirteen-foundling United States had won their impossible revolution. They could not know that their victory was but a shifting from a war with musket and cannon to one with tariffs and border disputes. With the country sinking into bankruptcy, the leaders in the thirteen states agreed:
...The Americans had stunned the world by winning their independence from the mightiest military power on earth and creating a startling new constitution that vested ultimate power in the common man. No one had anticipated that, by the 1790s, the giants of the world — England, France, Spain, and Russia — would again be caught up in war, with the United States trapped in the middle. British Canada to the north, hostile American Indians
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