As the struggle for independence from England versus loyalty to the Crown heats up, war erupts, and daily life takes on an ever-more desperate character. A fierce local "civil war" intensifies the looting, plundering, massacre, battles, and treason of the Revolution. In the end, the futility of war is clear when the English commander in chief acknowledges to George Washington in 1783 that the conflict should have ended with the American victory at Trenton seven years before, in 1776. "Fabend's evocative prose recreates a vivid New World. A poignant and gripping story, richly researched."