"Battle of Brooklyn book - read it?" Topic

So I just started reading this book. I had a hard time keeping with it as the background on British and American soldiers was so awful and cliched. Then I remembered I bought this book sometime ago and ditched it for that very reason.

Has anyone made it through, and if so, opinions?

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Link reposted to correct.

Your link sends one to a Washington Examiner article about Fauci.

I didnt find it particularly good or helpful

I've gotten further this time, but find a lot of his writings on the AMerican generals to be odd, and not well documented.

Barnet Schecter's newer "Battle for New York" has received good reviews.

i think it's fair to say his approach is not especially scholarly. It depends what you're after.

We'll, I just read that the British brought several regiments of colored troops from the Caribbean. Wow. Who knew? :-(

Nope. It was a slog. I finally put it down.

Eric

I found "Battle of Long Island" by Eric I. Manders to be far superior.

Wow, who knew that the American riflemen had to find tree stumps to jump up on to load their long rifles, using steel ramrods? Oh my. Now I remember why I threw this book back. This guys just made stuff up. :-(

We'll, I just read that the British brought several regiments of colored troops from the Caribbean. Wow. Who knew? :-(

West Indian Troops are not in the British order of battle in the back of the book.

Perhaps he is confusing them with those that were taken to New Orleans in late 1814…

…who knew that the American riflemen had to find tree stumps to jump up on to load their long rifles, using steel ramrods? Oh my. Now I remember why I threw this book back. This guys just made stuff up.

I have never read until I read this book, that American rifles used a 'forced' ball that had to be hammered down the barrel.

And I have never read the silliness about standing on a tree stump to load, etc.

The bibliography is very poor, with no mention of the use of Harold Peterson's excellent Arms and Armor in Colonial American and The Book of the Continental Soldier.

This volume cannot be used as a reference or source material. These two thumping errors are very bad…

I found a couple of copies of Manders book on Long Island and it is now going for almost two hundred dollars.

Brechtel – There are a lot more errors, and assertions about people with no footnotes or quotes. It is a hot mess, and shame on me for not recognizing I discarded it previously. I won't event attempt to guess where he got his information, or if he just made it up.

As an aside, Rock Ford Plantation, in Lancaster, PA, has a wonderful colleciton of period Pennsylvania rifles. Of course, they all have wooden ramrods. Worth a visit if they are still on display.

I did read this book sometime ago, and seem to recall it was pretty good – dust jacket artwork aside:

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I guess I shouldn't even bother to start with my copy then. I picked it up second hand years ago, so not out much money, but it is disappointing to here that it is a poorly researched book.

Probably best.