Author Ann Malaspina tells of an incident that connects General Washington and poet, Phillis Wheatley.  In 1775, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, General Washington was guiding his rag-tag group of men and boys into becoming soldiers to fight the well-disciplined British troops.  At the same time, Phillis Wheatley sat in Providence, Rhode Island, struggling with her own thoughts about the British, the colonists, and freedom.  Looking for a way to support the colonists’ desire to be free of British tyranny, on Oct. 26, 1775, she wrote a poem to encourage General Washington.  Her words remained with Washington as he and his men struggled to prepare for battle.  In Feb. 1776, Washington sent her a letter thanking her for her words of encouragement and admiring her talent as a poet.  A month later, Washington aimed real and pretend cannons at the British in Boston.  Surprised at the supposed strength of the Continental Army, the British retreated and the Army won its first victory.  No one knows if Washington and Wheatley ever met and their lives then followed different paths.  This short picture book tells details from the lives of two important people at one point in the history of our country.