Although we talk about honoring our "Founding Fathers," and consider George Washington our First Hero, most of us do not realize how close we came to losing the early fight for freedom before it was fully launched.

David McCullough is an historian and a successful writer. He is the author of The Path Between the Seas and Mornings on Horseback, as well as biographies of Harry Truman and John Adams. An authority on the eighteenth century, he is wellqualified to write this account of the momentous year of 1776.

It is humbling to find out how much we do not know about the struggles of that time and how impossible the whole enterprise seemed at times to those involved in it. Arrayed against the inexperienced, often ragged men and leaders of the Continental Army (as it came to be known) were the healthy, wellfed, well-trained soldiers of His Majesty's army. Generals Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne were excellent officers, men of "proved courage and commitment to duty." But we had George Washington.

McCullough begins with a profile of King George III, that much maligned king. "Tall and rather handsome, with clear blue eyes and a generally cheerful expression, George III had a genuine love of music and played both the violin and the piano." More to the point, he had a genuine love of England and believed that the colonies were out of hand and could be easily subdued.

Most of the Parliament members agreed with him, but there were some, like John Wilkes, who thought the war was unjust and ruinous "to our country." Those voices did not prevail and soon men and supplies continued to flow to the British forces in America.

Meanwhile, Washington was struggling to build his army and to convince the continental Congress to adequately supply and pay the men. He was in the prime of life, six feet two inches tall, and with a commanding presence. Never arrogant, he believed that a commander needed to keep an appropriate distance from his men. Other officers were more inclined to be friends. General Putnam once asked a soldier to throw a large rock on a defense wall. On being told by the soldier that he was a corporal (and therefore too important to do a menial job), Putnam asked his pardon and threw the rock himself.

With such detail, McCullough makes the reader care again about the outcome. Even though we know of the ultimate success, we agonize over the plight of the men at Dorchester Heights and New York, and exult with the citizens who watched the army move north, suffer defeat, escape almost miraculously, and "live to fight another day."

Meanwhile, the leaders in Philadelphia were composing a document that would settle the question of whether the endeavor was to obtain rights for the citizens of the colonies or to gain their freedom from the mother country.

Nathaniel Greene and Henry Knox proved to be Washington's most valuable officers. France and the Netherlands provided financial support. "But in the last analysis it was Washington and the army that won the war for American independence."

This book tells the story of that dreadful yet inspiring first year.

1776 is available at the Mary Willis Library.