Posted on 07/08/2007 7:39:21 AM PDT by Pharmboy
I would like to add my 2 cents here. Another reason the battles in the north tended to get more ink was the Washington was in the north for most of the war, and any battle that he was in or near assumed greater importance. But I agree: in some ways, the war in the south was more interesting than the one in the south.
Another reason the battles in the north tended to get more ink was that Washington was in the north for most of the war, and any battle that he was in or near assumed greater importance. But I agree: in some ways, the war in the south was more interesting than the one in the north.
The Washington Family Crest
The RevWar/Colonial History/ General Washington ping list. Freepmail me to get ON or OFF this list.
That’s probably the next book I’m going to read.
More Revolutionary War battles fought in SC than any other state. Not MA, not NY, not NJ...
In other words, they adopted the Indian war culture. Native Americans were doing this to each other long before White Man came on the scene.
And for interest's sake, Westchester County in NY was a microcosm of what most of the south was like in that Westchester County during the war was a no-man's land and skirmishes between "the cowboys" (Loyalists who supplied beef and other food to the Brits in NYC) and Patriots were common (and I'm not speaking of The Battle of White Plains).
Agreed.
As long as you forget the reign of terror unleashed upon the Northeast by Gentleman Johnny and the others. The Indians didn't exactly practice conventional warfare, just ask Jane McCrea.
NVA on a roll today. Yes—the killing of Jane MCrea (even though she was on her way to meet her Loyalist/Officer lover) was a key issue that got many men from the surrounding countryside (NY, CT, MA,) to join Granny Gates at Saratoga.
This sounds like a great new book.
While watching “The Revolution” on The History Channel on Independence Day, I looked up some of the speakers on the web. I wound up buying “The Road to Guilford Courthouse” by John Buchanan and just started reading it. I haven’t previously read much about the campaigns in the south except for “Decision at the Chesapeake” by Harold Larrabe.
Do you know what is Washington’s DNA haplogroup?
Other than the destruction of Indian villages and food supplies, the sentence should read “infrequently” instead of “not infrequently.”
Killing women, children and elderly in sneak attacks on isolated farms; raping women; torture, including running the gauntlet; the burning of farmsteads; taking some as captives who would be put to work in the Indian village (though many did become adopted Indians in a Stockholm syndrome); summarily killing captives who had difficulty traveling back to the Indian village; this was the typical way in which Indians made war on the colonists.
For the colonists, while one can find examples here and there of such activities as reprisals, these tactics were not their normal approach to war (other than burning villages and destroying crops, which was a standard tactic against Indians who fled instead of standing and fighting a militia force). The attempt by some colonists to sell Indians captured in war as slaves was generally abandoned fairly early on.
A note to men named O'Neil or O'Neal, etc.: It is likely that you share a Y-chromosome with the Father of Our Country. Not bad.
The big takeaway, however, is that The General comes from a Celtic male line and not Anglo-Saxon or Norman French (and yes, all, I realize that the Y-chromosome is a small part of our genome and other tribes may have contributd more to Washington's makeup).
Talk about an insurrection waiting to happen!
Sun rises in east. Rain wet. Pope Catholic.
. . . I know, I know. I majored in military history so I have inside information so to speak. But there never were any "gentleman's wars", at least from the point of view of the participants.
There are of course moments of gentility. My father served with a British unit in WWII (how a boy from Rome GA wound up in the 79th Cameron Highlanders is a long and complicated story that will wait for another day), and he told us that they would be tearing along somewhere in a column, and all of a sudden, "Right, 4 o'clock, time for tea!" and all the trucks and Bren carriers would pull over and stop, out would come the little stoves, everybody would brew up and enjoy their tea. 4:30, "Right, war's back on," and everyone would pile back into the trucks and go on their way.
If you thought that was bad... wait until the Next Civil War here in the States.
Perhaps interesting enough, but this professor’s lecture topics include:
Lecture topics:
Flawed Icon: Reassessing General Washington
Myths of the Revolutionary War
Americas First Band of Brothers: Common Soldiers in the Revolutionary War
Americas First Pivotal Election: The Election of 1800
BTTT
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