The Winter Soldiers

The author of Decisive Day chronicles two pivotal battles in the Revolutionary War and the adversity faced by American troops.
The Winter Soldiers is the story of a small band of men held together by George Washington in the face of disaster and hopelessness, desperately needing at least one victory to salvage both cause and country.


In the fall of 1776 the British delivered a crushing blow to the Revolutionary War efforts. New York fell and the anguished retreat through New Jersey followed. Winter came with a vengeance, bringing what Thomas Paine called "the times that try men's souls."


Richard M. Ketchum tells the tale of unimaginable hardship and suffering that culminated in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. Without these triumphs, the American Revolution that had begun so bravely could not have gone on.

Praise for The Winter Soldiers

"Superb military history of an intimacy and narrative power such as is rarely written." —Orville Prescott


"In this book the American Revolution begins to appear as a tale of men like ourselves who did their best in what looked like a failing cause and won a brilliant success." —Bruce Catton, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Stillness at Appomattox