Tory tales: America's first civil war revealed

Local Monty Co. MD Gazette ^ | Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2010 | Brooke Kenny

[Pharmboy]

Photo from Edie Allen
Tom Allen has written dozens of books and contributes frequently to both National Geographic and Smithsonian Magazine.

If the title of Bethesda author Tom Allen's new book requires a double-take, you're probably not alone. After all, it mentions America's "First Civil War," which might leave you wondering when we suffered through a civil war other than the one that ended in 1865.

As Allen thoroughly addresses in "Tories: Fighting for the King in America's First Civil War," the Revolutionary War was about more than the battle to win freedom from Great Britain. Although many colonists wanted independence, thousands of others wanted to maintain a relationship with Great Britain, and intense, bloody fighting took place between the two factions.

"The idea of the Revolutionary War being called a civil war just evaporates under the heat of the North-South civil war," Allen points out.

Americans were battling other Americans in addition to fighting the British.

[jocon307]

I’ll admit this here, although with some hesitation.

I realized how conservative I really am when I was in 4th grade (or thereabouts) and realized I would have been a Tory in the Revolution.

Of course, I did live in NYC, which was deeply Tory if I’m not mistaken.