Revolutionary War in the Southern Back Country, The PDF Download

Author: James Swisher
Publisher: Pelican Publishing Company
ISBN: 1455611239
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
A description of the events that led to the climax and eventual demise of the British campaigns in the Southern theater during the Revolutionary War. The introductory chapter presents the British and Hessian employment of the eighteenth century European method of warfare and the ways it contrasted with the colonial army's diverse and constantly changing fighting styles. The subsequent nine chapters detail the principal military efforts of the British in the South, their capture of seaports, movement in the backcountry, and the critical winter campaign of 1780-81. This almost forgotten campaign and its trilogy of intense clashes at Guilford Court House, Cowpens, and Kings Mountain proved pivotal to American independence. The leadership of the armies isolated in the backcountry and left to their own resources for survival is addressed. The British profiles include the admirably courageous direction of Lord Charles Cornwallis, his morally questionable but valorous cavalry commander Banastre Tarleton, as well as a cadre of impressive young officers such as Webster, Stuart, O'Hara, Hall, and Ewall. Swisher's profiles of the Southern colonial army details the genius strategies of Maj.Gen. Nathaneal Greene and the astute backwoods tactical abilities of Daniel Morgan at Cowpens.

Author: John Ferling
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1635572770
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 753

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Book Description
Co-Winner of the 2022 Harry M. Ward Book Prize From celebrated historian John Ferling, the underexplored history of the second half of the Revolutionary War, when, after years of fighting, American independence often seemed beyond reach. It was 1778, and the recent American victory at Saratoga had netted the U.S a powerful ally in France. Many, including General George Washington, presumed France's entrance into the war meant independence was just around the corner. Meanwhile, having lost an entire army at Saratoga, Great Britain pivoted to a “southern strategy.” The army would henceforth seek to regain its southern colonies, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, a highly profitable segment of its pre-war American empire. Deep into 1780 Britain's new approach seemed headed for success as the U.S. economy collapsed and morale on the home front waned. By early 1781, Washington, and others, feared that France would drop out of the war if the Allies failed to score a decisive victory that year. Sir Henry Clinton, commander of Britain's army, thought “the rebellion is near its end.” Washington, who had been so optimistic in 1778, despaired: “I have almost ceased to hope.” Winning Independence is the dramatic story of how and why Great Britain-so close to regaining several southern colonies and rendering the postwar United States a fatally weak nation ultimately failed to win the war. The book explores the choices and decisions made by Clinton and Washington, and others, that ultimately led the French and American allies to clinch the pivotal victory at Yorktown that at long last secured American independence.

Author: John W. Gordon
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN: 1643362100
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
An assessment of critical battles on the southern front that led to American independence An estimated one-third of all combat actions in the American Revolution took place in South Carolina. From the partisan clashes of the backcountry's war for the hearts and minds of settlers to bloody encounters with Native Americans on the frontier, more battles were fought in South Carolina than any other of the original thirteen states. The state also had more than its share of pitched battles between Continental troops and British regulars. In South Carolina and the American Revolution: A Battlefield History, John W. Gordon illustrates how these encounters, fought between 1775 and 1783, were critical to winning the struggle that secured Americas independence from Great Britain. According to Gordon, when the war reached stalemate in other zones and the South became its final theater, South Carolina was the decisive battleground. Recounting the clashes in the state, Gordon identifies three sources of attack: the powerful British fleet and seaborne forces of the British regulars; the Cherokees in the west; and, internally, a loyalist population numerous enough to support British efforts towards reconquest. From the successful defense of Fort Sullivan (the palmetto-log fort at the mouth of Charleston harbor), capture and occupation of Charleston in 1780, to later battles at King's Mountain and Cowpens, this chronicle reveals how troops in South Carolina frustrated a campaign for restoration of royal authority and set British troops on the road to ultimate defeat at Yorktown. Despite their successes in 1780 and 1781, the British found themselves with a difficult military problem—having to wage a conventional war against American regular forces while also mounting a counterinsurgency against the partisan bands of Francis Marion, Andrew Pickens, and Thomas Sumter. In this comprehensive assessment of one southern state's battlegrounds, Gordon examines how military policy in its strategic, operational, and tactical dimensions set the stage for American success in the Revolution.

Author: Walter B. Edgar
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0380806436
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
From one of the South′s foremost historians, this is the dramatic story of the conflict in South Carolina that was one of the most pivotal contributions to the American Revolution. In 1779, Britain strategised a war to finally subdue the rebellious American colonies with a minimum of additional time, effort, and blood. Setting sail from New York harbour with 8,500 ground troops, a powerful British fleet swung south towards South Carolina. One year later, Charleston fell. And as King George′s forces pushed inland and upward, it appeared the six-year-old colonial rebellion was doomed to defeat. In a stunning work on forgotten history, acclaimed historian Walter Edgar takes the American Revolution far beyond Lexington and Concord to re-create the pivotal months in a nation′s savage struggle for freedom. It is a story of military brilliance and devastating human blunders - and the courage of an impossibly outnumbered force of demoralised patriots who suffered terribly at the hands of a merciless enemy, yet slowly gained confidence through a series of small triumphs that convinced them their war could be won. Alive with incident and colour.

Author: Lawrence E. Babits
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807887668
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
The battle of Cowpens was a crucial turning point in the Revolutionary War in the South and stands as perhaps the finest American tactical demonstration of the entire war. On 17 January 1781, Daniel Morgan's force of Continental troops and militia routed British regulars and Loyalists under the command of Banastre Tarleton. The victory at Cowpens helped put the British army on the road to the Yorktown surrender and, ultimately, cleared the way for American independence. Here, Lawrence Babits provides a brand-new interpretation of this pivotal South Carolina battle. Whereas previous accounts relied on often inaccurate histories and a small sampling of participant narratives, Babits uses veterans' sworn pension statements, long-forgotten published accounts, and a thorough knowledge of weaponry, tactics, and the art of moving men across the landscape. He identifies where individuals were on the battlefield, when they were there, and what they saw--creating an absorbing common soldier's version of the conflict. His minute-by-minute account of the fighting explains what happened and why and, in the process, refutes much of the mythology that has clouded our picture of the battle. Babits put the events at Cowpens into a sequence that makes sense given the landscape, the drill manual, the time frame, and participants' accounts. He presents an accurate accounting of the numbers involved and the battle's length. Using veterans' statements and an analysis of wounds, he shows how actions by North Carolina militia and American cavalry affected the battle at critical times. And, by fitting together clues from a number of incomplete and disparate narratives, he answers questions the participants themselves could not, such as why South Carolina militiamen ran toward dragoons they feared and what caused the "mistaken order" on the Continental right flank.

Author: Michael Cecere
Publisher: Journal of the American Revolu
ISBN: 9781594163685
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
The American Revolutionary War began when Massachusetts militiamen and British troops clashed at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Two months later, a much larger engagement occurred at Bunker Hill in Boston. The conflict then expanded into a continent-wide war for independence from Great Britain. Or so we are taught. A closer look at events in the South in the eighteen months following Lexington and Concord tells different story. The practice of teaching the Revolutionary War as one generalized conflict between the American colonies and Great Britain assumes the South's support for the Revolutionary War was a foregone conclusion. However, once shots were fired, it was not certain that the southern colonies would support the independence movement. What is clear is that both the fledgling American republic and the British knew that the southern colonies were critical to any successful prosecution of the war by either side. In March to Independence: The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies, 1775-1776, historian Michael Cecere, consulting primary source documents, examines how Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia ended up supporting the colonies to the north, while East Florida remained within the British sphere. South Carolina, Georgia, and East Florida all retained their royal governors through the summer of 1775, and no military engagements occurred in any of the southern colonies in the six months following the battles in Massachusetts. The situation changed significantly in the fall, however, with armed clashes in Virginia and South Carolina; by early 1776 the war had spread to all of the southern colonies except East Florida. Although their march to independence did not follow the exact route as the colonies to the north, events in the South pulled the southern colonists in the same direction, culminating with a united Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. This book explores the crucial events in the southern colonies that led all but East Florida to support the American cause.

Author: Gregory D. Massey
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781611170696
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Offers new perspectives on Greene's leadership of continental troops, his use of the mounted troops of South Carolina partisan leaders Thomas Sumter and Francis Marion, his integration of local militia into his fighting force, and his proposal that slaves be armed and freed in return for their military service"--Dust jacket.

Author: Kevin John Weddle
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195331400
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 545

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Book Description
Opening Moves -- The First Invasion -- A New British Strategy -- A Question of American Command -- Laying the Groundwork -- The Fall of Fort Ticonderoga -- Defeat, Retreat, Disgrace -- Aftershocks -- Burgoyne Moves South -- The Ordeal of Philip Schuyler -- The Murder of Jane McCrea -- Not to Make a Ticonderoga of It -- Oriskany and Relief -- Cat and Mouse -- Burgoyne's Dilemma -- The Battle of Bennington -- Gates takes Command -- The Battle of Freeman's Farm -- Sir Henry Clinton to the Rescue -- The Battle of Bemis Heights -- Retreat, Pursuit, and Surrender -- British Reassessment -- The Fruits of Victory -- Conclusion: Strategy and Leadership.

Author: Patricia Cornwell
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780425160985
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Patricia Cornwell turns from forensics to police procedures in Hornet's Nest. The gritty, heroic life of big-city police is seen through the eyes of three leading crimefighters from Charlotte, North Carolina--Police Chief Judy Hammer, Deputy Chief Virginia West, and ambitious young reporter Andy Brazil.

Author: David K. Wilson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781570037979
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A reexamination of major Southern battles and tactics in the American War of Independence A finalist for the 2005 Distinguished Writing Award of the Army Historical Foundation and the 2005 Thomas Fleming Book Award of the American Revolution Round Table of Philadelphia, The Southern Strategy shifts the traditional vantage point of the American Revolution from the Northern colonies to the South in this study of the critical period from 1775 to the spring of 1780. David K. Wilson suggests that the paradox of the British defeat in 1781--after Crown armies had crushed all organized resistance in South Carolina and Georgia--makes sense only if one understands the fundamental flaws in what modern historians label Britain's "Southern Strategy". In his assessment he closely examines battles and skirmishes to construct a comprehensive military history of the Revolution in the South through May 1780. A cartographer and student of battlefield geography, Wilson includes detailed, original battle maps and orders of battle for each engagement. Appraising the strategy and tactics of the most significant conflicts, he tests the thesis that the British could raise the manpower they needed to win in the South by tapping a vast reservoir of Southern Loyalists and finds their policy flawed in both conception and execution.