In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown

National Book Award winner Philbrick (Valiant Ambition) claims that historians have given insufficient attention to the pivotal September 1781 battle between the French and British Navies off the Chesapeake Bay during the American Revolutionary War. In Philbrick's estimation, while involving no Americans, it was the most decisive event leading to the defeat of British Army general Charles Cornwallis that October. After the fight, the French fleet backed up American and French ground troops strategically positioned around Cornwallis, who was entrenched at Yorktown with no chance of rescue by water. Philbrick credits the genius of George Washington's coordinated plan, which hinged on French naval support and control of the Chesapeake, for the Yorktown victory. He recounts the coincidental Caribbean hurricanes that sent the French fleet north, the Chesapeake Bay fight and naval maneuvering, last-minute financing, preliminary land battles, methodical placement of colonial and French forces for the clash with Cornwallis, as well as Washington's postvictory administrative headaches. Washington found it providential that all essential meteorological, military, and personality elements of his complex plan connected favorably at the right time.