This is the story of Artemas Ward, the first commander-in-chief of the American Revolution. It is the story of the high elevation of an eighteenth-century Massachusetts country-township leader. In Artemas Ward it presents a type as clear-cut and distinct as that of the Samuel Adams of the Boston town-meeting and the wealthy Washington of Virginia; and it tells of a life lived in the strength of an unquestioning faith in the Puritan religion, of an intelligence of high order "directed chiefly to the practical interests of mankind," of a character distinguished by industry, and patience, and forgetfulness of self, by tenacity of conviction and complete integrity.