Book Review: The Fort by Bernard Cornwell

I am quite a fan of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe Seriesso, when I came across a copy of The Fort in my local library I thought I would give it a go. While the Sharpe books are set during the Napoleonic Wars, The Fort is set earlier, during the American War of Independence. At first I thought it might be a sequel to his Redcoatnovel, however, this is not the case. The book is a fictional account of a little known historical campaign, which took place in the third year of the revolutionary war.

In 1779 a small force of Scottish soldiers land on the coast of what is now Maine (then part of Massachusetts). Backed by three small Royal Navy vessels, the British army under General Francis McClean, has orders to establish a garrison and naval base at Penobscot Bay in order to provide a refuge for American loyalists and control the New England seaboard.

The State of Massachusetts, however, is determined to expel the invaders and nearly a thousand State militia, under General Solomon Lovell, are dispatched to carry out the task. With the backing of a fleet of some forty ships led by Commodore Dudley Saltonstall, the American forces should easily be able to destroy the British. The Fort explores the events through the eyes of a number of participants on both sides of the conflict.

I am fairly knowledgeable about the Napoleonic wars and, for me, part of the pleasure in reading the Sharpe series is seeing how the author fits his eponymous hero into the historical events. In contrast I know very little about the American War of Independence, and certainly hadn't heard of the Penobscot expedition, so I was unsure what to expect or what the outcome was going to be; this added to my enjoyment of this book. 

For the same reason, I also enjoyed the historical notes at the end where the author explains the decisions he made regarding the historical events and characters. What comes across is a thoughtful and well researched novel which brings to life a hitherto little known conflict.

The action is described in the author's usual style, familiar to readers of his other works. However, as this novel is based on a historical event the action isn't as frequent as in, for example, the Sharpe books. Instead there is a lot more emphasis on the interaction between the various characters, and particularly the frequent 'councils of war' which seemed to be such a feature of the American execution of the campaign.

While some readers may find this disappointing, I would argue that such an emphasis is entirely appropriate. Having read the historical notes I would suggest that the contrasting leadership styles of the opposing commanders had more of a baring on the outcome of the campaign than any particular skirmish.

If I have any criticism it was that the novel was little slow to start and, at first, I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy it. With hindsight I suspect that the author wanted to explore the background to some of the characters so that the motivation for their later actions could be more easily understood. Certainly, once the drama began to unfold I quickly became engrossed.

If you would like to read The Fort, you can purchase a copy at Amazon.
Alternatively, if you have a Kindle you can download a copy here.