The author could have easily reduced the number of pages by 1/2. The seemingly endless repetition of events frustrated me to the point i was talking to the narrator. I struggled to finish this, but in the end….by sheer rote, i could have written the last chapter. Also perplexing was the author’s repeated insistence that Washington emulated Napoleon, when chronology clearly indicates it was the other way around. Washington did not embrace Napoleonic teachings, but invented them.