In the early days of April 1776, with the siege of Boston freshly won and the British fleet vanishing over the Atlantic horizon, General George Washington turned his attention southward. New York would almost certainly be the next theater of war, and Washington knew he had to reach it before the enemy did. But the overland route from New England to Manhattan was more than a line on a map. It was a living corridor of towns, taverns, and communities whose support for the revolutionary cause could not be taken for granted. Washington understood, perhaps better than any man alive, that this journey would serve two purposes at once: military preparation and political persuasion.