Scars of Independence: America's Violent Birth

by Holger Hoock, reviewed by Glenn Altschuler,
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 7, 2017

In November 1775, Adm. Samuel Graves, the commander of Great Britain’s American squadron, recommended that since leniency had yielded “farther Violences,” the ungrateful Colonists should be “severely dealt with.” The result was “desolation warfare” that lasted until preliminary articles of peace were signed in Paris on Nov. 30, 1782.