The “Ten Crucial Days” winter campaign of 1776–77 is one of the most storied in the annals of military history. David Price examines this pivotal moment in the American War of Independence through an interpretive framework that focuses on five key factors: leadership, geography, weather, artillery, and contingency. His narrative differs from earlier works on the subject that are largely a chronological account of this period.

The “Ten Crucial Days” were the canvas on which a masterpiece of bold and enterprising leadership was painted. It may have borne George Washington’s signature, but the brushes were furnished by the officers and common soldiers he commanded and the coloration made vibrant by the hues from various contributing factors: the quality of decision-making on both sides of the conflict, the nature of the terrain, the effects of weather, the roar of cannon fire, and the vagaries of fortune. The confluence of these overlapping factors seemingly conspired to frustrate British designs at a critical moment in their effort to overpower the American rebellion. Although each was important in its own right, their aggregate influence on the course of events reflected the mutually reinforcing nature of these elements.

Leadership that met the moment—when combined with the auspicious effects of favorable geography, weather that accommodated the needs of an army, the adept use of numerically superior artillery, and fortuitous developments that fall under the rubric of contingency—won the “Ten Crucial Days” and propelled the Revolutionary cause into a lengthy war of attrition that eventuated in American independence.