Conner Runyan, Author at Journal of the American Revolution

The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on January 16, 2018January 9, 2018

Across the River: The Failure of the American Southern Strategy along the Savannah River

Hidden in the Nineteenth Century histories of Georgia is a likely answer to a question that has puzzled students of the American Revolution in the South for decades; why was General Andrew Williamson, acting in the same manner as so many around him, singled out as a traitor, loathed by so many as the “Arnold […]

by Conner Runyan

People Posted on September 27, 2017September 3, 2017

The Widow’s Apron: Life, Death, and a Forgotten Skirmish Along the Old Blackstock Road

This is the story, such as it can be told, of one long forgotten woman in the midst of the revolutionary war, a weaver of homespun cloth who, burdened with crushing grief and guilt, showed a spark of decency, if only for one brief moment, following a deadly skirmish on a hot July day in […]

by Conner Runyan

People Posted on July 12, 2017July 9, 2017

Offering of the Ladies: Esther Reed’s Sentiments, Washington’s Objections

Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Franklin and, to a much greater extent, lesser notables such as Reed, Rush, Morris and dozens more profoundly understood what it would take to keep an army together, but it may well be that their wives and daughters knew something that they did not. A group of ‘knotty matrons’ proposed a […]

by Conner Runyan

The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on May 25, 2017May 25, 2017

We Have Sacrificed Our All

“We Have Sacrificed Our All.” Thus, stated eleven loyalist officers from Ninety-Six and Camden Districts of South Carolina in a petition intended for the King of England. What happened to them, and the three hundred more named in the petition, is part of the equation leading to the question of how many families lost husbands […]

by Conner Runyan

The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on October 12, 2016September 18, 2016

Skirmish at the Thomas House: America’s First Sniper Team?

Even under the strange, somewhat inept leadership of Loyalist Col. John Moore, the task of hampering Spartanburg’s Fair Forest role as a Patriot stronghold should have been straightforward. What could not have been known is what would happen when the frontier’s best sharpshooter teamed up with three lovely, most remarkable of women along with a […]

by Conner Runyan

The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on May 12, 2016August 28, 2016

Did the First Cedar Springs Skirmish really happen?

Select any narrative from the dozens of sources that tell the story of what happened on July 12, 1780 at Cedar Springs, South Carolina, and basically here is what you get: Sometime during the night of July 12 a group of Tory militia, said to be one hundred and fifty strong, less than half a […]

by Conner Runyan

Arts & Literature Posted on September 2, 2015August 28, 2016

The Monument That Never Was

Everything we know about Brig. Gen. Andrew Williamson leads to one question: Did he become a traitor to the Patriot cause—the “Arnold of the South,” or is he a scapegoat, a victim of powerful men seeking to avoid blame and censure? This is a look at a two week period following the death of Williamson. […]

by Conner Runyan

Author: Conner Runyan

Across the River: The Failure of the American Southern Strategy along the Savannah River

The Widow’s Apron: Life, Death, and a Forgotten Skirmish Along the Old Blackstock Road

Offering of the Ladies: Esther Reed’s Sentiments, Washington’s Objections

We Have Sacrificed Our All

Skirmish at the Thomas House: America’s First Sniper Team?

Did the First Cedar Springs Skirmish really happen?

The Monument That Never Was