This Fierce People

April 15, 2024
A vivid re-creation of the Revolutionary War in the American South, a guerrilla-style conflict that paved the way for the British surrender at Yorktown. In this intriguing work of military and social history, Crawford, author of Unwise Passions, argues convincingly that the South was where "the most decisive battles...were fought." The author mines the historical record to show that the Southern conflict was an exceedingly violent version of a guerrilla war, one that pitted loyalists against revolutionaries at every level of Southern society. Gen. Nathanael Greene, taking command of the American side after some near-catastrophic losses, understood "that he had stepped into what a later generation would also call a civil war. Neighbors were killing each other with horrifying regularity." On the field of battle, conditions were punishing. Infectious diseases and starvation stalked the soldiers as both sides employed scorched-earth tactics and fought bitterly to hold their ground in South and North Carolina. Many Americans barely remember learning about the siege of Charleston and the battles of Camden, Kings Mountain, and Cowpens, but these were crucial to the eventual victory at Yorktown. There were some heroes, such as Johann von Robais, a superb German military officer who died fighting for the Americans, but there were cruel and opportunistic officers on both sides: the "coldblooded and ruthless" British officer Banastre Tarleton and American officer Thomas Sumter, who authorized his troops to pay themselves by plundering property, which included enslaved people. Crawford follows the revolutionaries in their quest to cut off British supply lines from the coast to the backcountry. The author could have strengthened his superior account with more attention to the loyalists' point of view. Nonetheless, he provides a clear picture of the stark cost of American independence on both sides of the conflict. A clear, coherent, and even suspenseful account of the American Revolution.

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June 1, 2024
So much of Revolutionary War history focuses on battles fought in the North: Lexington, Concord, Boston, Saratoga, New York, Valley Forge. But key to the Revolution's ultimate success were the soldiers who kept British troops tied down in skirmishes in the southern colonies. Crawford (Twilight at Monticello, 2008) details how Generals Francis Marion and Thomas Sumter and their bands of partisans helped drive Cornwallis and his loyalists out of the Carolinas, which were key to British supply lines. Crawford details the often desperate efforts and guerrilla tactics of the ragtag troops against the usually superior numbers of the British. He devotes useful attention to the role of enslaved fighters, whom both the British and the Americans tried to woo with promises of future freedom. The "final" battle at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781, as Crawford points out, did not itself bring an end to the struggle--but by then, Parliament had turned against the war. Crawford's achievement is a valuable addition to Revolutionary War history that adds useful detail and perspective.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.