The Mock Court Martial of British General Sir William Howe

David McCullough, America's award-winning historian, laid down the challenge in an interview on CBS "60 Minutes" when he claimed that when it comes to teaching history "young Americans are historically illiterate" Hall of Fame, award-winning historian Roy Cini Cusumano took up the challenge: His riveting, fast paced court martial with nonstop suspense. British Commander in Chief General Sir William Howe, facing a death sentence, is haunted in London by his flawed military campaigns at Long Island, Brandywine, Barren Hill, and Valley Forge. The trial also exposes Howe's embarrassing life styles including perjury, adultery, and his farewell, wild party gone mad. In his gripping trial Cusumano exposes England's best kept secret of the American Revolutionary War concocted by Sir William at Philadelphia. The King and Parliament were furious. General Howe's best chance to end the war was at Barren Hill or Valley Forge. If he captures Generals Lafayette or George Washington, the war is over. It was that simple. The British commander had the perfect chance to launch his invasion and capture General Washington with 16,000 British and German armies-the two greatest, most powerful on the globe. Washington had only 3000. Skillfully, Sir William imposed a code of silence on his generals. He played down the Barren Hill event as a meaningless tactic. Invading Valley Forge was an absurd idea. Testimonies by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin unsheathe their rhetorical knives drawn to strike at England's tyrannies. Sir William lost the war; England lost the thirteen colonies. And General George Washington emerged the greatest military commander in the history of warfare.