Tag: Battle of Camden

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Lord Rawdon at Camden—Giving a Victor His Due: Strategy and Tactics

Departing from Morristown, New Jersey, the Continental Army’s Maryland Division, Delaware Regiment, and 1st Continental artillery (approximately 1,400 men), were ordered south in April 1780 to break the siege of Charlestown and reinforce Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln’s beleaguered garrison. Upon reaching Petersburgh, Virginia, in early June, the surrender of Charlestown on May 12 became known. […]

by John Boyd
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Hero to Zero? Remembering Horatio Gates

Between heroes like George Washington and villains like Benedict Arnold, the Revolutionary War was full of historical actors of all stripes. But one man in particular defies an easy sorting between hero and villain. Washington’s first adjutant general, Horatio Gates, does not have a secure place in historical memory as either hero or villain. In […]

by Mike Matheny
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Patriots and Politics, Redcoats and Reconstruction: General Nathanael Greene’s Grand Southern Strategy

Major General Nathanael Greene’s military career presents a paradox to historians: how could a Quaker, unlearned in the art of war, become one of America’s foremost Revolutionary War generals? While historians have extensively studied Greene’s exercise of tactics and operations, Greene’s formulation and execution of grand strategy—the linking of economic, governance and security objectives with […]

by H. Allen Skinner
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Morale Manipulation as the Central Strategic Imperative in the American Revolutionary War

Most people think of wartime propaganda as atrocity stories about the enemy. But commanders also disseminate false and true information in hopes of boosting their own soldiers’ morale and sapping the enemy’s. Even more persuasive than words are actions, and manipulating morale often dictates how commanders deploy their troops. Witness the American War of Independence. […]

by Woody Holton
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Sir Henry Clinton’s Generalship

“My fate is hard,” Sir Henry Clinton remarked after learning that he had been named commander of the British army in May 1778, adding that he expected to someday bear “a considerable portion of the blame” for Britain’s “inevitable” lack of success.[1] There were good reasons for Clinton’s pessimism. Not only was France entering the […]

by John Ferling
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Easy as Falling Off a Horse

Horses have been used for transportation for thousands of years, but have caused countless injuries and deaths. There is a saying that the only men who have never fallen off a horse, are the ones who never rode one. Wikipedia lists scores of famous and not-so-famous individuals who have died in or, more often, out […]

by Joseph Lee Boyle
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Nineteenth-Century Remembrances of Black Revolutionary Veterans: Thomas Carney, Maryland Continental Soldier

John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish establish the first African American newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, in New York in 1827. The paper circulated in eleven states, the District of Columbia, Haiti, Europe, and Canada. The same year, Sarah Mapps Douglass, a Black educator and contributor to The Anglo African, an early Black paper, established a school for […]

by John Rees
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A Demographic View of North Carolina Militia and State Troops, 1775–1783

After nearly a quarter of a millennium, what do we really know about the militia and state troops that served during the Revolutionary War? Historians and researchers over the past century have dedicated entire volumes to addressing this question with numerous publications of militia rosters. While this research has proven invaluable, what does it really […]

by Douglas R. Dorney, Jr.
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The Battle of Shallow Ford, October 14, 1780

In September 1780, writing from Hillsborough, North Carolina, just one month after the disastrous defeat at Camden, Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates penned a disconcerted letter to Thomas Jefferson, the then governor of Virginia, broadly sketching the situation in the colonial South: “Should Wilmington in this State and Portsmo[uth] in Yours, be the posts they intend […]

by Travis Copeland
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The Mysterious March of Horatio Gates

Following the American surrender at Charleston on May 12, 1780, the Continental Army’s “Southern Department” was in disarray. Taken prisoner that day were 245 officers and 2,326 enlisted, including Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, the Southern Department’s commander-in-chief, along with militia and armed citizens, the most American prisoners surrendered at one time during the American Revolution.[1] […]

by Andrew Waters
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Certain British and British American Actors in the Southern Theater of the War

This article supplements one of mine that appeared in the Journal of the American Revolutionin November 2016.[1] Based partly on The Cornwallis Papers,[2] it provides a wide-ranging set of reappraisals compartmentalised under the sub-headings below. James Paterson Paterson, as he signed his surname, had been appointed Lt. Colonel of the 63rd Regiment on June 15, […]

by Ian Saberton
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Mapping the Battle of Eutaw Springs: Modern GIS Solves a Historic Mystery

When dealing with available sources to investigate questions related to historical events, the researcher has at his disposal a limited set from which to choose. Contemporaneous accounts, reports, maps, plats, legal filings, and location evidence exist in a more or less complete record. Nevertheless, linking the elements bearing witness to one event or another is […]

by Stephen John Katzberg
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Baron de Kalb’s Last Campaign

In 1777, Baron Johann de Kalb sailed to America from Bordeaux with the Marquis de Lafayette and a number of French officers who all expected to receive high ranking positions with the Continental Army. A veteran of many several European conflicts, the Baron served under Marshall Saxe in the War of the Austrian Succession and […]

by Wayne Lynch
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The 25 Deadliest Battles of the Revolutionary War

Name calling, fearing mongering and demonizing the enemy were all on the propaganda menu during the American Revolution. Once hostilities commenced, another game played a significant role in the war for mind control. A game of numbers. Simply inflating the size of your enemy’s forces on paper and deflating your own helped to magnify victory […]

by Todd Andrlik
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Unlucky or Inept? Gates at Camden

At the battle of Camden in August of 1780, Lord Cornwallis dealt the Americans under General Horatio Gates a shocking defeat.  Also known as the Hero of Saratoga, General Gates had recently proven a serious competitor to George Washington’s command of the Continental Army.  Because of the debate over command, the defeat drew all sorts […]

by Wayne Lynch
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Winner or Runner? Gates at Camden

Lord Cornwallis dealt General Horatio Gates a terrible defeat at Camden in South Carolina.  The battle represented a rather rude jolt to the reputation of the American general who had orchestrated the victory at Saratoga a few years earlier; to make matters even worse, rumors of personal cowardice followed the general for the rest of […]

by Wayne Lynch
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Repercussions of the Battle of Camden

One of the most striking aspects of the Battle of Camden is the vast amount of material that was written about it. Officers and soldiers who fought in Revolutionary War battles always wrote something about their experiences, but in regard to the Battle of Camden, they wrote much more than they did about other battles: […]

by Jim Piecuch