The Fort (novel)

The Fort is an historical novel written by Bernard Cornwell. The book relates to the events of the Penobscot Expedition of 1779 during the American Revolutionary War. While centred on the efforts of a regiment of Scots to establish and hold the fort against superior numbers of American revolutionaries, it contrasts the actions of two military icons: John Moore (later Sir John), a young officer who later laid the foundations of the light infantry doctrine used by the 95th Rifles and others against the French in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars; and Paul Revere, hero of Longfellow's poem written two generations later but, according to Cornwell's research, an insubordinate, unreliable and probably dishonest character who was a major factor in the defeat of the Americans.