The American War for Independence was under way before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but the Continental Army didn't have the force to back up the words. This history explores the army's early failures in Canada, with desertion and disease common among the ranks, and how new leadership disciplined and reorganized the army and set the stage for a key victory at Saratoga in 1777.

This is the first complete military study of the campaign directed by Brigadier General John Forbes in 1758 to drive the French out of the forks of the Ohio River. The author details the leadership, supply tactics, artillery, training and discipline that led to the campaign's success and its role in American Colonial history.

The American victory over the British at Saratoga in 1777 was arguably the pivotal event of the American Revolutionary War. The British defeat led France and Spain to declare war on Britain, transforming a colonial uprising into a world war and, by distracting the British with a European conflict, assuring the colonists' success. The British troops at Saratoga were led by Lieutenant General John Burgoyne, and two years after his defeat he faced a parliamentary investigation into his conduct of the campaign.

In Burgoyne and the Saratoga Campaign, Douglas R. Cubbison presents the...

Sir John St. Clair served as the Deputy Quartermaster General for General Edward Braddock during his campaign to capture Fort Duquesne at the Forks of the Ohio in 1755. St. Clair had great responsibilities for the Braddock Campaign, and he was the first British Deputy Quartermaster General to serve in North America in its history. The traditional interpretation of the campaign is that Braddock was old, slow, conservative, a martinet, focused upon discipline of his soldiers, poorly versed in tactics, uninterested in his soldiers or their welfare, logistically naive, unwilling to cooperate with...