Villainy and Maddness

The "Flying Camp" is a vaguely understood episode of the American Revolution. The full story of Washington's Flying Camp is told for the first time in Richard Lee Baker's new book, "'Villainy and Maddness' Washington's Flying Camp." Drawing on original sources, particularly the correspondence of the Continental Congress, state committees of safety, the George Washington papers, and more, Baker fills in the gaps in the history of the Flying Camp that have eluded historians until now. In his able hands, we trace the Flying Camp from its beginnings in Washington's imagination, to the dispatches of the new Congress enjoining the Middle States to commit specified numbers of militiamen to this important cause, to the logistical difficulties in achieving the objectives in General Washington's master plan, and to the actual service of Flying Camp militia in the campaigns of 1776.