Author: Burke DavisPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cowpens, Battle of, Cowpens, S.C., 1781
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The Cowpens-Guilford Courthouse Campaign
Author: Burke DavisPublisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 9780812218329
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
On January 17, 1781, near Cowpens, a drover's camp on the old Cherokee trading trail in Carolina territory, Continental troops and horsemen under the direction of Daniel Morgan inflicted a stunning defeat on a crack British detachment led by the ruthless Banastre Tarleton, commander of Lord Cornwallis's cavalry. Although Tarleton fled the battlefield to avoid capture, the American victory effectively destroyed the light corps of the British army in the South. Stung by the loss, Cornwallis ordered a deliberate and dogged chase of the American rebels, a campaign that meandered through the wilderness and small communities of the Carolinas. After months of retreating, the Continental army under the command of Nathanael Greene, a Rhode Island Quaker, chose to confront the British army near Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina. Although they fought with tenacity, the Americans were forced to retreat, but Cornwallis's army had suffered casualties too heavy to pursue the Continentals and instead fell back to the port city of Wilmington. Discouraged by the guerrilla tactics, Cornwallis moved north, to his final defeat at Yorktown. In The Cowpens-Guilford Courthouse Campaign, Burke Davis provides an engaging account of the key battles in the American South, demonstrating that it was here that the strength of the Continental army's resistance to superior British forces laid the foundations for the final American victory.
A Devil of a Whipping
Author: Lawrence E. BabitsPublisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807887668
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264
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.
The Battle of Guilford Courthouse
Author: John R. MaassPublisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1439669201
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 221
Book Description
Around the North Carolina village of Guilford Courthouse in the late winter of 1781, two weary armies clashed on a cold, wet afternoon. American forces under Nathanael Greene engaged Lord Cornwallis's British army in a bitter two-hour battle of the Revolutionary War. The frightful contest at Guilford was a severe conflict in which troops made repeated use of their flintlock muskets, steel bayonets and dragoon swords in hand-to-hand fighting that killed and wounded about eight hundred men. Historian John R. Maass recounts the bloody battle and the grueling campaign in the South that led up to it, a crucial event on the road to American independence.
The Road to Guilford Courthouse
Author: John BuchananPublisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 1620459213
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 508
Book Description
A brilliant account of the proud and ferocious American fighters who stood up to the British forces in savage battles crucial in deciding both the fate of the Carolina colonies and the outcome of the war. "A tense, exciting historical account of a little known chapter of the Revolution, displaying history writing at its best."--Kirkus Reviews "His compelling narrative brings readers closer than ever before to the reality of Revolutionary warfare in the Carolinas."--Raleigh News & Observer "Buchanan makes the subject come alive like few others I have seen." --Dennis Conrad, Editor, The Nathanael Greene Papers "John Buchanan offers us a lively, accurate account of a critical period in the War of Independence in the South. Based on numerous printed primary and secondary sources, it deserves a large reading audience." --Don Higginbotham, Professor of History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Long, Obstinate, and Bloody
Author: Lawrence Edward BabitsPublisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807832669
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322
Book Description
Argues that, although the British won the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, the losses they sustained were significant enough to force a withdrawal from the state, and were an important factor in their final defeat at Yorktown, which ended the American Revolution.
A Game of Hare & Hounds
Author: Harold Allen Skinner, Jr.Publisher:
ISBN: 9781732003163
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Battle Maps of the American Revolution
Author: American Battlefield TrustPublisher: Knox Press
ISBN: 9780998811246
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 112
Book Description
From the American Battlefield Trust, an unparalleled collection of their popular battle maps of the Revolutionary War. “Wow! I just love those maps that you guys send to me.” It is a phrase that the staff of the American Battlefield Trust hears on a weekly basis and the expression refers to one of the cornerstone initiatives of the organization, mapping the battlefields of the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and the American Civil War. The American Battlefield Trust is the premier battlefield preservation organization in the United States. Over the last thirty years the American Battlefield Trust and its members have preserved more than 54,000 acres of battlefield land across 145 battlefields, in twenty-four states—at sites such as Lexington & Concord, Brandywine, Yorktown, Shiloh, and Gettysburg. Other than physically walking across the hallowed battle grounds that the American Battlefield Trust has saved, the best way to illustrate the importance of the properties that we have preserved is through our battle maps. Through the decades, the American Battlefield Trust has created hundreds of maps detailing the action at major battles. Now, for the first time in book form, we have collected the maps of some of the most iconic battles of the Revolutionary War. In Vol. 3 of our Battle Maps of the American Battlefield Trust series, you can follow the course of the war from Lexington & Concord to the British surrender at Yorktown. Study the major actions of the Revolutionary War from start to finish utilizing this unparalleled collection of maps.
Cowpens
Author: Thomas J. FlemingPublisher: National Park Service Division of Publications
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 100
Book Description
Recounts the story behind the defeat, of the British forces under Banastre Tarleton by Daniel Morgan's rebels, that helped turn the tide of the Revolutionary War in the South. The battlefield, a pasture in North Carolina, is now part of the National Park System. Includes brief notes about related battlegrounds and a list of books for further reading.
Eutaw Springs
Author: Robert M. DunkerlyPublisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN: 1611177596
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 183
Book Description
An in-depth analysis of one of the War for Independence’s bloodiest and least understood conflicts. The Battle of Eutaw Springs took place on September 8, 1781, and was among the last in the War of Independence. It was brutal in its combat and reprisals, with Continental and Whig militia fighting British regulars and Loyalist regiments. Although its outcome was seemingly inconclusive, the battle, fought near present-day Eutawville, South Carolina, contained all the elements that defined the war in the South. In Eutaw Springs: The Final Battle of the American Revolution’s Southern Campaign, Robert M. Dunkerly and Irene B. Boland tell the story of this lesser known and under-studied battle of the Revolutionary War’s Southern Campaign. Shrouded in myth and misconception, the battle has also been overshadowed by the surrender of Yorktown. Eutaw Springs represented lost opportunities for both armies. The American forces were desperate for a victory in 1781, and Gen. Nathanael Greene finally had the ground of his own choosing. British forces under Col. Alexander Stewart were equally determined to keep a solid grip on the territory they still held in the South Carolina lowcountry. In one of the bloodiest battles of the war, both armies sustained heavy casualties with each side losing nearly twenty percent of its soldiers. Neither side won the hard-fought battle, and controversies plagued both sides in the aftermath. Dunkerly and Boland analyze the engagement and its significance within the context of the war’s closing months, study the area’s geology and setting, and recount the action using primary sources, aided by recent archaeology. “A well put together book that is easy to read, and it makes good use of graphic material. Eutaw Springs is recommended.” —The Journal of America’s Military Past “A long-overdue study of . . . Nathanael Greene’s last main force Southern campaign engagement. Drawing from a wealth of resources including new research, archaeology and pension documents, the authors have created an easy reading account. . . . For students of the Revolutionary War, this is must reading because so much focus has been directed at Yorktown where the British abandoned an army instead of the more mobile war in the South where the war was finally won by wearing down the British.” —Lawrence Babits, George Washington Distinguished Professor of History, East Carolina University “A very good analysis of the political, military, and physical environment, with some profiles of a number of interesting people, most notably Nathanael Greene, after Washington the most important American general of the war, though he never won a battle.” —New York Military Affairs Symposium Review
The Quaker and the Gamecock
Author: Andrew WatersPublisher: Casemate
ISBN: 9781612007816
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
As the newly appointed commander of the Southern Continental Army in December 1780, Nathanael Greene quickly realized victory would not only require defeating the British Army, but also subduing the region's brutal civil war. "The division among the people is much greater than I imagined, and the Whigs and the Tories persecute each other, with little less than savage fury," wrote Greene.Part of Greene's challenge involved managing South Carolina's determined but unreliable Patriot militia, led by Thomas Sumter, the famed "Gamecock." Though Sumter would go on to a long political career, it was as a defiant partisan that he first earned the respect of his fellow backcountry settlers, a command that would compete with Greene for status and stature in the Revolutionary War's "Southern Campaign."Despite these challenges, Greene was undaunted. Born to a devout Quaker family, and influenced by the faith's tenets, Greene instinctively understood the war's Southern theater involved complex political, personal, and socioeconomic challenges, not just military ones. Though never a master of the battlefield, Greene's mindful leadership style established his historic legacy.The Quaker and the Gameccock tells the story of these two wildly divergent leaders against the backdrop of the American Revolution's last gasp, the effort to extricate a British occupation force from the wild and lawless South Carolina frontier. For Greene, the campaign meant a last chance to prove his capabilities as a general, not just a talented administrator. For Sumter, it was a quest of personal revenge that showcased his innate understanding of the backcountry character. Both men needed the other to defeat the British, yet their forceful personalities, divergent leadership styles, and opposing objectives would clash again and again, a fascinating story of our nation's bloody birth that still influences our political culture.