Dear Readers,

I’m writing to you on my laptop computer from my office in Connecticut. I’m wearing a pair of red sweatpants and munching on potato chips.

But in my mind, I am still in colonial New York City. Instead of a computer, I’m scribbling away with my feather quill dipped in ink. I’m wearing a long flowered dress and a white bonnet (very flattering!). I’m chewing on some roasted ox.

Every I Survived book takes me on a journey through time. But the journey for this book has been especially long and thrilling. It’s taking me a little longer than usual to feel like I’m back home.

For years I Survived readers have been suggesting a book about the Revolutionary War. But the war was long — it lasted from 1775 to 1783. I wasn’t sure what to focus on. I knew I would have to do an enormous amount of research to understand this complex event.

And so I kept avoiding the topic.

Then one day I was at a park in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. There’s a huge monument there — a towering column topped by a metal sculpture. I was shocked to learn that it was dedicated to Revolutionary War soldiers who died on British prison ships.

British prison ships?

I sat down on a bench and did some instant research. I learned that 11,500 American soldiers died on prison ships docked in the waters around Brooklyn. Many of them were captured during the Battle of Brooklyn (also known as the Battle of Long Island), the biggest battle of the Revolutionary War.

The Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, in Fort Greene Park. This picture was taken in 1909, a year after it was built.

I was even more shocked. I had never heard of the Battle of Brooklyn. It turned out that most people I knew hadn’t heard of it, either.

I knew I had the topic for my book about the Revolutionary War.

That trip to the Brooklyn park began a research project that included reading about thirty books, plus dozens of letters, diary entries, and battle reports written in 1776. I went to Brooklyn, Mount Vernon, Boston, and two Pennsylvania battlefields. I learned how to fire a musket (on YouTube). I picked up a cannonball (at a museum in Brooklyn). I interviewed historians.

I learned that the Revolutionary War was far more terrifying, complicated, messy, and miraculous than I’d ever imagined. I spent more than six months researching this topic, and for the entire time I felt a sense of wonder and fascination.

I hope I have captured some of that in this book. And I hope my one small story inspires you to begin your own journey learning about the Revolutionary War.

I’m happy to be home and with all of you.

As they would have said in 1776:

Huzzah!