The Washington Crossing Historic Park Book Club invites history enthusiasts to explore the American Revolution through engaging discussion and carefully selected readings. Led by the park’s Museum Curator, Kimberly McCarty, the club meets virtually via Zoom and focuses on books that shed new light on the Revolutionary era, with special emphasis on the events surrounding the Delaware River crossing and the 1776 campaign. Free and open to all, meetings typically take place on the third Monday of each month and provide an opportunity to connect with fellow readers while deepening your understanding of this pivotal period in American history.

The fighting prowess of United States Marines is second to none, but few know of the Corps’ humble beginnings and what it achieved during the early years of the American Revolution. Jason Bohm rectifies this oversight with his eye-opening Washington’s Marines: The Origins of the Corps and the American Revolution, 1775–1777.

The story begins with the oppressive days that drove America into a conflict for which it was ill-prepared, when thirteen independent colonies commenced a war against the world’s most powerful military with nothing more than local militias, privateers, and other ad hoc units. The Continental Congress rushed to form an army and placed George Washington in command, but soon realized that, to win its freedom, America would need men who could fight on the sea and on land. Enter the Marines. Bohm artfully tells the story of the creation of the Continental Marines and the men who led them during the parallel paths followed by the Army and Marines in the opening years of the war and through the early successes and failures at Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, Canada, Boston, Charleston, and more.

Washington’s Marines:  The Origins of the Corps and the American Revolution, 1775-1777

• September 21 – Prologue – Chapter 3
• October 19 – Chapters 4-5
• November 16- Chapters 6-7
• December 21- Chapters 8-9
• January 21- Chapter 10 – Appendix B