Published posthumously on the occasion of America's centennial celebration, George Lippard's Washington and His Generals, "1776" compiles into a single volume his five popular books of Revolutionary-era historical fiction. The first book, "The Battle-Day of Germantown", features Lippard's hometown and George Washington's intricate and ultimately overcomplicated assault on the British during the Philadelphia campaign of the American Revolution. "The Wissahikon", the second book, depicts the defecting of a Tory to the rebel cause after witnessing General William Howe's failed attempt to bribe a pious George Washington following the British capture of Philadelphia. In "Benedict Arnold", the infamous treachery of the treasonous Continental Army general is the subject. With "The Battle of the Brandywine", Lippard recounts the American despair over the September 11, 1777, battle that drove back the Continental forces, leaving the capital in Philadelphia under British occupation. The collection ends with the fifth book, "The Fourth of July, 1776", his imagined version of the day that inspired most of Lippard's patriotic writing.
It includes the often quoted "Speech of the Unknown" given by an anonymous revolutionary, which in the book provided the final impetus for the delegates to sign the Declaration of Independence.