Overview
The South played a crucial role in the American Revolution, as it was home to several critical battles that determined the fate of the colonies. The Revolution began in the South in 1775 when the British forces tried to seize control of Charleston, South Carolina. The Patriot forces, led by William Moultrie and Charles Lee, successfully defended the city in a fierce battle that lasted for several days. This victory boosted the morale of the Patriot forces and marked the beginning of a long and bloody struggle for independence.
The British forces returned in 1789, led by General Charles Cornwallis. He launched a Southern campaign, hoping to gain control of the region and crush the Patriot forces. The British army captured Charleston and Savannah and won several in-land battles, including the Battle of Camden. However, the Patriots, led by General Nathanael Greene, adopted a strategy of attrition and engaged in partisan warfare, striking at the British forces when they least expected it. This strategy proved effective, and the war turned against the British. Nevertheless, the Patriots won several crucial battles, including the Battle of Cowpens and the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, which forced Cornwallis to retreat to Yorktown, Virginia, where he was ultimately defeated, bringing an end to the American Revolution.
Diaries and Memoirs
Rebel Side
Lee, Henry. Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States. Washington, DC: Peter Force, 1827.
Moultrie, William. Memoirs of the American Revolution, so Far as It Related to the States of North and South Carolina, and Georgia. Vol. I. New York: David Longworth, 1804.
British/Loyalist Side
Lamb, Roger, and Don N Hagist. A British Soldier’s Story: Roger Lamb’s Narrative of the American Revolution. Baraboo, Wis.: Ballindalloch Press, 2004.
Tarleton, Banastre. A History of the Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in the Southern Provinces of North America. Dublin: Colles, Exshaw, White, H. Whitestone, Burton, Bryne, Moore, Jones and Dornin, 1787.
Primary Sources
Cornwallis, Charles Cornwallis, and Ian Saberton. The Cornwallis Papers: The Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in The Southern Theatre of the American Revolutionary War. Vol. 1-6 Uckfield, England: Naval & Military Press, 2010.
Secondary Sources
Buchanan, John. The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas. New York: Wiley, 1997.
Buchanan, John. The Road to Charleston: Nathanael Greene and the American Revolution. Charlottesville: the University of Virginia Press, 2019. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2019.
Covering the second half of the Southern Campaign, Buchanan starts with Gen. Nathanael Greene’s appointment to the Southern Continental Army Commander, replaced Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates after the calamitous defeat at the Battle of Camden. Buchanan’s thesis is that Greene was central to the Rebels, eventually driving the British out of the South. In between, Buchanan recounts the initial partisan conflicts which kept the Rebels in the field. Later he describes the tactical defeats but strategic wins which severely weakened the British forces. Finally, the author regards Greene’s strategic leadership, which emphasized bleeding the British forces in set-piece battles but keeping intact his army. Buchanan concludes that Greene was the maestro orchestrating the strategic Rebel victory while tactically losing most battles.
Cecere, Michael. Invasion Of Virginia 1781. Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2017.
Johnston, Peter R. Poorest of the Thirteen: North Carolina and the Southern Department in the American Revolution. Haverford, PA: Infinity Pub, 2001.
Lumpkin, Henry. From Savannah to Yorktown: The American Revolution in the South. Lincoln: To Excel, 2000.
Morrill, Dan L. Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution. Baltimore, Md: Nautical & Aviation Pub. Co. of America, 1993.
Morrill’s book is best for readers seeking an overview of the Revolutionary War in the Southern colonies. In less than two hundred pages, he covers the eight-year Southern conflict. The book’s strengths include easy-to-read maps, a detailed chronology, and a bibliography for further research and study. The book’s downside is that the author relies on mostly primary sources, with some participant observations published in assembled collections. Another limitation is that the author recounts the significant events without introductory or concluding remarks and does not offer a compelling thesis. However, readers looking for the basic Southern Revolutionary War facts will appreciate this concise book helping to orient further investigations.
Saberton, Ian. The American Revolutionary War in the South: A Re-Evaluation from a British Perspective in the Light of the Cornwallis Papers. Tolworth, Surrey: Grosvenor House Publishing Co., 2018.
Waters, Andrew. To the End of the World: Nathanael Greene, Charles Cornwallis, and the Race to the Dan. Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2020.
Andrew Water opens his book with a bleak outlook for, the Rebel cause in the Southern Theater. After a series of disastrous defeats, Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene assumed command of the remnants of the Continental Army and a few militia units. He faced British General Charles Cornwallis who led a formable, well supplied army. Greene devised one of the most innovative and clever military strategies in the history of warfare. He continually rapidly retreated in face of the superior enemy, enticing an exhausting march through inhospitable northern North Carolina. Now known as the “race to Dan” River, Greene bided his time to drain his foe while gathering reinforcements from Virginia and North Carolina. Execution of this strategy led to Cornwallis’s defeat at Yorktown, the return of the southern states to Rebel control and to the end of the war. A page turner, Andrew Waters’ book cogently recounts a series of near miss escapes and demonstrates that for a few vital hours, the Rebel cause in the south could have been lost. Both military historians and the general public readers will palpably feel the tension and stress of this seminal campaign.
Wilson, David K. Southern Strategy: Britain’s Conquest of South Carolina and Georgia, 1775-1780. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2008.
The British Southern Strategy got off to a winning start with the capture of Charleston and the surrender of the Southern Continental Army. It appeared in 1780 that the British would be successful in putting down the rebellion in the south. David K. Wilson identifies the fatal flaws in their strategy, leading to a remarkable turnaround. Led by Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene, the Patriot forces waged a hit and run campaign which sapped the British Army’s strength setting the stage for Lord Cornwallis’s disastrous march into Virgina and fateful decision to encamp at Yorktown. Wilson’s volume includes orginal battle maps which aid the readers understanding of the complex troop movements and every changing battlefield.
Campaigns/Battles
Overview of Southern Campaign from a British Perspective
Saberton, Ian. American Revolutionary War in the South Further Reflections from a British Perspective in the Light of the Cornwallis Papers. Tolworth, Surrey: Grosvenor House Publishing Co., 2022.
Book Review
Researching the American Revolution 