George Washington A Life In Books – Kevin J Hayes (1)

Fielding Lewis’s comments about the reception of Common Sense in Virginia provided a more representative viewpoint. Describing the Virginia situation to Washington, Lewis wrote: “The opinion for independentcy seems to be gaining ground. Indeed most of those who have read the Pamphlet Common Sence say it’s unanswerable.”37 John Penn, a delegate to the Continental Congress from North Carolina, recorded similar impressions regarding the influence of Paine’s pamphlet in the South. Traveling to Philadelphia for the spring session of Congress, Penn wrote that throughout his journey he heard nothing praised “but Common Sense and Independence.

That was the cry throughout Virginia.”38 Believing in American independence and achieving it were, needless to say, two different things. After months in Massachusetts, Washington had been unable to budge the British. Since his first firefight in 1754—the one in which he found something charming in the sound of whistling bullets— Washington had become more cautious.

People still remembered what he had said on that occasion.39 Speaking with him privately one day in Cambridge, the Reverend Thomas Davis asked Washington if he had really said that he knew of no music so pleasing as the whistling of bullets. “If I said so,” Washington replied, “it was when I was young.” While the Boston stalemate between the Continental troops and the British persisted, something was happening in the backwoods of New York that would change the situation.

On May 10, 1775, the same day the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia, Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys captured Fort Ticonderoga from the British, seizing possession of both the fort and its precious arsenal. Since then, Colonel Henry Knox had been busy transporting dozens of artillery pieces from the fort to Boston. With Knox’s arrival in early 1776, Washington now had sufficient firepower to threaten the British. The finest account of the ensuing events may be the one Washington wrote himself. In a letter to Landon Carter he related his decision to take possession of Dorchester Heights, which had a commanding view of the British forces in Boston.40 By positioning the Ticonderoga artillery to point downward at the enemy troops, Washington forced them to make a decision: fight or flee.

The biggest challenge he faced beforehand was taking Dorchester Heights undetected. To that end he ordered his men to bombard Boston for three nights running to divert British attention from their true objective. On Monday, March 4, 1776, under the cloak of darkness, Washington took possession of Dorchester Heights “without the loss of a single Man,” he told Carter.

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America. © Oxford University Press 2017 All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above.

You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Hayes, Kevin J., author. Title: George Washington : a life in books / Kevin J. Hayes. Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2017.

| Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016046056 (print) | LCCN 2016048179 (ebook) | ISBN 9780190456672 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190456689 (updf) | ISBN 9780190456696 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Washington, George, 1732–1799—Books and reading. | Presidents—United States —Biography. | BISAC: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Presidents & Heads of State. | BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary. | HISTORY / United States / Revolutionary Period (1775–1800). Classification: LCC E312.17 .H397 2017 (print) | LCC E312.17 (ebook) | DDC 973.4/1092 [B]— dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016046056 Title page illustration: George Washington Artist: Gilbert Stuart, 1796; oil on canvas National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; acquired as a gift to the nation through the generosity of the Donald W.

Reynolds Foundation 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed by Edwards Brothers Malloy, United States of America OceanofPDF.com for my parents OceanofPDF.com CONTENTS Preface Acknowledgments 1. Meditations and Contemplations 2. Every Boy His Own Teacher 3. Exemplars 4. Travel Writing 5.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 30e03b20ead6c36f
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 5,513,262 bytes (5.258 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9780190456672, 9780190456689, 9780190456696
• Pages: 467
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 754.87 minutes
• Total Words: 150,974
• Total Characters: 962,957
• Average Words per Page: 323.28
• Average Characters per Page: 2062.01

Most Frequent Words

washington (1869), washington’s (609), american (488), george (441), books (419), new (411), one (386), john (376), history (372), library (371), virginia (315), papers (309), mount (302), work (291), vernon (291), series (273), war (271), read (270), william (268), also (262), copy (245), first (236), book (233), british (221), many (215), philadelphia (211), colonial (208), time (207), london (206), life (200), letters (199), though (199), much (196), america (195), york (184), two (183), congress (180), general (180), reading (179), thomas (179), military (170), french (163), great (163), journal (161), letter (161), edition (155), wrote (152), another (144), university (142), press (141), himself (141), robert (141), english (140), several (140), works (136), address (133), custis (132), years (131), states (130), made (130), collection (122), volume (122), men (121), published (119), revolutionary (119), james (117), president (116), took (115), found (112), like (112), united (110), well (110), vols (110), readers (108), young (105), title (104), day (104), home (103), man (103), knowledge (103), jefferson (102), society (101), part (99), since (99), upon (99), continental (98), franklin (98), england (97), early (96), personal (94), boston (94), way (94), literary (93), pamphlet (93), army (92), boucher (92), king (91), left (90), good (90), year (90).

PDF Download