The rebellion had taken on a life of its own. First, after the skirmishes of Lexington and Concord, when General Howe and his redcoats had tried to break out of Boston, the Patriots had inflicted terrible casualties on them at Bunker Hill. Then, up in the northern reaches of the Hudson River, Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys took the redcoats by surprise and seized the little fort of Ticonderoga, with all its heavy cannon. After this, the Congress had been so emboldened that they even tried a sortie into Canada.

Down in Virginia, the British governor had offered freedom to any slaves who cared to run away to join the British Army—which had made the Southern planters furious. In England, King George had declared the American colonies in a state of rebellion—which by now was the truth—and ordered their ports closed.

“The king’s declared war on us,” the Liberty Boys announced.

But the thing that had stirred people most was not a military engagement at all. In January 1776 an anonymous pamphlet had appeared. Soon it became known that the author was an Englishman named Thomas Paine, who’d recently arrived in Philadelphia. The pamphlet was entitled “Common Sense.” “Damned sedition,” John Master had called it, but as a piece of writing it was brilliant.

For not only did Paine argue for an independent America—God’s country, where fugitive Freedom could find a safe haven from Europe’s ancient evils—but he used phrases that echoed in the mind. King George became “the royal brute of Britain.” Of British rule he remarked: “There is something very absurd in supposing a continent to be governed by an island.” And of independence, simply and memorably: “’Tis time to part.” Within weeks “Common Sense” was being read all over the colonies.

By now it seemed unavoidable: it was war. New York, with its mighty harbor and control of the northern river route to Canada, would be a key point. Washington of Virginia, chosen by the Congress as commander-in-chief, had already inspected the city. Early in 1776, he’d sent Lee, his trusted general, to strengthen it.

If General Charles Lee had any connection with the notable Lees of Virginia, it must have been distant. For he turned out to be an eccentric Englishman. He’d served in America in the French and Indian War, and taken an Indian wife before returning to fight in Europe. Recently, however, he’d returned to America to settle. Passionate for the colonists’ cause, this hot-tempered military man strode around the city with his pack of dogs, usually followed by a crowd of curious children. He knew his business, though. In a month, he had laid the solid groundwork for the city’s defenses.

His presence in the city had had one other consequence for the Master family. When James went to offer his services, he had much impressed the peppery general, who had soon sent him up to Boston to join Washington.