Jonathan’s sister, Martha Crowl, befriends fellow patriot Caroline and when Sam inadvertently lets slip some sensitive information about a forthcoming English attack on rebel-held forts they conspire to get a letter to the rebel army.Īs Captain Kit Vane gets increasingly frustrated by Martha Crowl’s disinterest in his amorous advances and General Howe’s ponderous attitude toward the task of killing rebels his attitude turns ruthless to the extent where he recruits Scammell to do his dirty work. He is injured in the same battle that sees Sam’s brother killed and it is Sam who initially saves Jonathon from bleeding to death. So much so, much to his loyalist uncle’s disgust, he runs off to join their army leaving behind his love Caroline. On the other side of loyalties is the idealistic patriot Jonathon from a merchant family who wants to help the rebels. Sam is good with horses and it’s a skill that serves him well looking after the mounts of the upper echelons of the army. He is recruited by Captain Kit Vane, an aide to Howe, and is thankful as his brother’s killer the brutal Sergeant Scammell wants to flog him to death.

The titular Redcoat is the good-hearted Private Sam Gilpin, seduced into war by his brother’s tales of gold and the flashy uniform, and when his brother his killed his life as a simple soldier is thrown into disarray. The patriots in the mean time find ways to communicate with the rebels fighting on the fringes of the city and let them know what they can learn of planned troop movements and attacks. The unarmed patriots within the city are seen as a minor inconvenience by General Howe who commands the English garrison and indeed he humours them at the many parties he holds he would like to see a peace treaty signed with George Washington. While Sharpe was action-packed, Redcoat concentrates less on the battles and more on the intrigue and treachery among the various figures on both sides of the war in the city. Redcoat was first published in 1987 and Cornwell wrote it before his hugely popular multi-volume TV-adapted Sharpe series began.

Some a loyalists supporting the English regime policed by the occupying Redcoats that they nickname ‘lobsters’, and some are staunch patriots who want to see America free from the yoke of a far off government. Redcoat is set in the year 1777 in war-torn Philadelphia populated by clergy, merchants and farmers with divided loyalties.

After spending most of the year reading Bernard Cornwell’s Last Kingdom series it was interesting to read one of his early standalone novels.

Redcoat by bernard cornwell