December 1776: Just six months after the signing of the Declaration of
Independence, George Washington and the new American Army sit on the
verge of utter destruction by the banks of the Delaware River. The
despondent and demoralized group of men had endured repeated defeats and
now were on the edge of giving up hope. Washington feared "the game is
pretty near up."
Rather than submit to defeat, Washington and his small band of soldiers
crossed the ice-choked Delaware River and attacked the Hessian garrison
at Trenton, New Jersey on the day after Christmas. He followed up the
surprise attack with successful actions along the Assunpink Creek and at
Princeton. In a stunning military campaign, Washington had turned the
tables, and breathed life into the dying cause for liberty during the
Revolutionary War.
The campaign has led many historians to deem it as one of the most
significant military campaigns in American history. One British
historian even declared that "it may be doubted whether so small a
number of men ever employed so short a space of time with greater or
more lasting results upon the history of the world."
In Victory or Death, historian Mark Maloy not only recounts these epic
events, he takes you along to the places where they occurred. He shows
where Washington stood on the banks of the Delaware and contemplated
defeat, the city streets that his exhausted men charged through, and the
open fields where Washington himself rode into the thick of battle.
Victory or Death is a must for anyone interested in learning how George
Washington and his brave soldiers grasped victory from the jaws of
defeat.
