In TO TRY MEN'S SOULS, Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen cast a new light on the year 1776 and the man who would become the father of our nation, George Washington. CRUCIBLE OF VICTORY picks up the narrative a year after Washington's triumphant surprise attack on Trenton. It's 1777, and Washington's battered, demoralized army retreats from Philadelphia. Arriving at Valley Forge, they discover that repeated requests for a stockpile of food, winter clothing, and building tools has been neglected or ignored by Congress.

The season is one of agony. For weeks the dwindling army lives under tents in the bitter cold. Food runs out. The men are on the point of collapse, while in Philadelphia the British, joined by Allen van Dorn, the Loyalist brother of the dead patriot, Jonathan van Dorn, live in luxury.

In spite of the suffering and deceit, Washington endures all, joined at last by a volunteer from Germany, Baron von Steuben. Von Steuben begins the hard task of recasting the army as a professional fighting force capable of facing the British head-on - something it has never accomplished before.