The story of this war has usually been told in terms of a conflict between blundering
British generals and their rigidly disciplined red-coated troops on the one side and heroic American patriots in their homespun shirts and coonskin caps on the other. In this fresh, compelling narrative, Christopher Hibbert portrays the realities of a war that raged the length of an entire continent a war that thousands of
George Washington's fellow
countrymen condemned and that he came close to losing. Based on a wide variety of sources and alive with astute character sketches and eyewitness accounts,
Redcoats and Rebels presents a vivid and convincing picture of the "cruel, accursed" war that changed the world forever.
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Background Information
George Washington fought in both the French and Indian and the Revolutionary wars, and was his country's first President. Charles Cornwallis was a British officer and colonial administrator who achieved some success during the Revolution but is best remembred for surrendering to Washington at Yorktown. Those citizens of the American colonies who kept their loyalty to Britain were known as Tories, or Loyalists.