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
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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.
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.
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?
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
America’s First Band of Brothers: Common Soldiers in the Revolutionary War
America’s First Pivotal Election: The Election of 1800
Considering that US population then was about 1% of what it is today, that would be about 1.1 million today. That's a far greater comparative toll than the Iraq War, for instance, which is why the press today NEVER prints such comparisons. Still, it is slight, comparatively to the Civil War, and WW I and II.
Congressman Billybob
Big fights around here in the Carolinas during the Rev War.
Bunch of fights around Fayetteville over salt, used for pay and food preservation..
Almost a Miracle:
The American Victory
in the
War of Independence
by John Ferling
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Ferling challenges other misconceptions about the period. One is that the War of Independence came upon a previously peaceful land.
Yet there are many more examples -- the "neutral" ground in North-eastern Jersey was a rough area of guerilla night raids -- many a good patriot family in that area lost its men to the prison ships in NY harbor, were men were fed food the dogs didn't eat.
The reason the north gets more press is because it’s the North.
Since the CW in particular, New England Yankees have been pretty much controlling what is American “culture” (Thanksgiving, anyone? even if they were common in the day) and history.
NEers love to paint themselves as the starters of the war - which is true, but it’s about all they did. The way Ted Kennedy’s MA compatriots act, the entire war was in MA. Actually, after leaving Boston after a year, the war never fully returned there. There was a fight in Newport RI, but most of the major fighting became a NY-PA thing, Arnold’s return home notwithstanding.
Yes, Washington’s part in it had a lot to do with it. But I still think it’s because culture has focused heavily on New England. People have been taught it’s NE-this and NE-that, and before long people think NE did it all, both staging battles and fighting men. Look how New Jersey finally put on a campaign that they’re the “crossroads of the Rev”; before that noone was really aware how much happened with NJ.
And if you stick to NE, indeed, the war will seem short and easy. Because nothing much happened there.
The English were right, it was the "American way of war", but more it was the "American Indian way of war" and the natives got it returned to them in spades by the colonials who were quick learners.
A comment on your comment: Over the 4th, the History Channel repeated it's excellent series on the Revolution and one of the things mentioned was that between the fall of Charleston and Cowpens there were something like 110/130 major engagements in the Carolinas.
