1776 david mccullough chapter summaries

David McCullough - 1776

1776

David McCullough

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David McCullough - 1776

For Rosalee Barnes McCullough

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David McCullough - 1776

Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.

—General George Washington

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David McCullough - 1776

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part 1

● Chapter One Sovereign ● Chapter Two Rabble

❍ Section I ❍ Section II ❍ Section III

● Chapter Three Dorchester ❍ Section I ❍ Section II ❍ Section III ❍ Section IV

Part 2

● Chapter Four The Lines are Drawn ❍ Section I ❍ Section II ❍ Section III

● Chapter Five Field ❍ Section I ❍ Section II ❍ Section III ❍ Section IV

Part 3

● Chapter Six Fortune ❍ Section I ❍ Section II ❍ Section III

● Chapter Seven Darkest ❍ Section I ❍ Section II

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David McCullough - 1776

❍ Section III

Other

● Acknowledgments ● Bibliography ● Photographs & Maps ● Also By David McCullough ● Copyright ● Scan and Proof Notes

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David McCullough - 1776

Part I

The Siege

The reflection upon my situation and that of this army produces many an uneasy

hour when all around me are wrapped in sleep. Few people know the predicament we are in.

—General George Washington

January 14, 1776

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David McCullough - 1776

Chapter One SovereignDuty

Contents - Prev / Next

God save Great George our King,

Long live our noble King,

God save the King!

Send him victorious,

Happy and glorious,

Long to reign o’er us;

God save the King!

ON THE AFTERNOON of Thursday, October 26, 1775, His Royal Majesty George III, King of England, rode in royal splendor from St. James’s Palace to the Palace of Westminster, there to address the opening of Parliament on the increasingly distressing issue of war in America.

The day was cool, but clear skies and sunshine, a rarity in London, brightened everything, and the royal cavalcade, spruced and polished, shone to perfection. In an age that had given England such rousing patriotic songs as “God Save the King” and “Rule Britannia,” in a nation that adored ritual and gorgeous pageantry, it was a scene hardly to be improved upon.

An estimated 60,000 people had turned out. They lined the whole route through St. James’s Park. At Westminster people were packed solid, many having stood since morning, hoping for a glimpse of the King or some of the notables of Parliament. So great was the crush that late-comers had difficulty seeing much of anything.

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David McCullough - 1776

One of the many Americans then in London, a Massachusetts Loyalist named Samuel Curwen, found the “mob” outside the door to the House of Lords too much to bear and returned to his lodgings. It was his second failed attempt to see the King. The time before, His Majesty had been passing by in a sedan chair near St. James’s, but reading a newspaper so close to his face that only one hand was showing, “the whitest hand my eyes ever beheld with a very large rose diamond ring,” Loyalist Curwen recorded.

The King’s procession departed St. James’s at two o’clock, proceeding at walking speed. By tradition, two Horse Grenadiers with swords drawn rode in the lead to clear the way, followed by gleaming coaches filled with nobility, then a clattering of Horse Guards, the Yeomen of the Guard in red and gold livery, and a rank of footmen, also in red and gold. Finally came the King in his colossal golden chariot pulled by eight magnificent cream-colored horses (Hanoverian Creams), a single postilion riding the left lead horse, and six footmen at the side.

No mortal on earth rode in such style as their King, the English knew. Twenty-four feet in length and thirteen feet high, the royal coach weighed nearly four tons, enough to make the ground tremble when under way. George III had had it built years before, insisting that it be “superb.” Three gilded cherubs on top—symbols of England, Scotland, and Ireland—held high a gilded crown, while over the heavy spoked wheels, front and back, loomed four gilded sea gods, formidable reminders that Britannia ruled the waves. Allegorical scenes on the door panels celebrated the nation’s heritage, and windows were of sufficient size to provide a full view of the crowned sovereign within.

It was as though the very grandeur, wealth, and weight of the British Empire were rolling past—an empire that by now included Canada, that reached from the seaboard of Massachusetts and Virginia to the Mississippi and beyond, from the Caribbean to the shores of Bengal. London, its population at nearly a million souls, was the largest city in Europe and widely considered the capital of the world.

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David McCullough - 1776