The Fort - by Bernard Cornwell (Paperback)

About the Book

The most prolific and successful historical novelist in the world today. Wall Street Journal Readers who haven t discovered Bernard Cornwell don t know what they are missing. New York Times bestselling author Vince FlynnFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Agincourt, the Saxon Tales, and the beloved Richard Sharpe series, Bernard Cornwell s The Fort plunges prow-first into the largest naval clash of the Revolutionary War. Fans of the Nathaniel Starbuck Chronicles and The Burning Land will thrill to Cornwell s triumphant return to American historical fiction in this gripping story of courage, strength and patriotism."

Book Synopsis

From New York Times bestselling author Bernard Cornwell--one of the greatest yet little-known skirmishes of the Revolution: the Penobscot Expedition, a battle that would reveal the true character of a legendary Revolutionary hero.

This new novel takes place during the very early days of the rebellion, or the War of Independence, in 18th century Massachusetts before Washington and before the organization of a colonial army. A small British fleet with a few soldiers on board had sailed in to be met, to their surprise, with an overwhelming strength of local militia.

Cornwell tells the story on both sides of the conflict, based largely on real figures, including of course Paul Revere (famous from the much later poem).

From the Back Cover

In the summer of 1779, as the major fighting of the Revolutionary War moves to the South, a British force consisting of fewer than a thousand Scottish infantry and backed by three sloops-of-war sails to the fogbound coast of New England. Establishing a garrison and naval base at Penobscot Bay, in the eastern province of Massachusetts, the Scots harry rebel privateers and shelter American loyalists. In response, the Americans send more than forty vessels and some one thousand infantrymen to "captivate, kill, or destroy" the foreign invaders. But ineptitude and irresolution lead to a mortifying defeat that will have stunning repercussions for two men on opposite sides of the conflict: an untested young Scottish lieutenant named John Moore, at the beginning of an illustrious military career . . . and a Boston silversmith and patriot named Paul Revere, who will face court-martial for disobedience and cowardice.