For Want of a Nail...

I've been reading - okay, listening to - 1776, the novel about the year. It's a fascinating story about the early stages of the Revolutionary War and the critical battles and events that take place. One thing that strikes me is how thin was the margin by which the colonies succeeded in their attempt to break away from the Crown. There are so many times when, had a relatively small event taken place, an entire battle and, likely, the entire war would have been lost. And who knows what our world would be like had that happened? It seems that all wars have those little things which occur and on which the fate of something larger, perhaps the entire enterprise, hangs. That anyone is here at all is against the odds...