As best-selling historian Patrick K. O’Donnell dramatically recounts, the Marblehead Regiment, led by John Glover, was truly indispensable. Beginning nearly a decade before the war started, The Indispensables also reveals how Marbleheaders such as Elbridge Gerry and Josiah Lee spearheaded the break with Britain and helped shape the nascent United States by playing a crucial role governing, building alliances, seizing British ships and forging critical supply lines that established the origins of the US Navy.

Marbleheaders battled at Lexington and on Bunker Hill and formed the elite Guard that protected George Washington, a precursor to today’s Secret Service. Then, at the most crucial time in the war, the regiment conveyed 2,400 of Washington’s men across the ice-filled Delaware River on Christmas night of 1776, delivering the momentum-shifting surprise attack on Trenton that changed the course of history.

This uniquely diverse unit set an inclusive standard the US Army would not reach for over 170 years. Compelling and original, The Indispensables is a vital addition to the literature of the American Revolution.

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