W hat if...? is the kind of unanswerable question that can easily give us nightmares and our Revolutionary War produced dozens of those inquiries. What if, early in the war, the weather and British delays hadn’t helped Washington’s forces escape from their entrapment on Manhattan Island? What if the decisive battle at Saratoga had been won by Burgoyne and the European credit that battle produced for the young nation was not gained? What if the Hessians had been better prepared at Trenton? What if John Andre had not been captured and Arnold’s betrayal of West Point (with the real possibility of the capture of Washington himself) had been successful? What if General Greene had made a single misstep in the South and been defeated by Cornwallis there?

And there is even a “what if” on the other side: What if Arnold had been successful in the Canadian campaign? We might well now have Ontario and Quebec as states instead of provinces.

John Ferling’s thoughtful account of these and dozens of other episodes that made up this strange “war between friends” makes a great read. Even knowing the outcome, I found myself caught up in the excitement of his account and I recommend Almost a Miracle highly.

Here’s just one example. In September 1780, Ferling tells us how Washington and his staff on the way to Connecticut “dined with Benedict Arnold, now the commander of America’s most important Hudson Highlands post, the installation at West Point. It was a delightful dinner and a pleasant evening. Washington liked the younger general and, with all the uncertainties in this war, he knew that Benedict Arnold was a man upon whom he could depend.” That brief account with its significant implications made me shudder.