Over the past few years, three demographic studies of North Carolina and Georgia Revolutionary War pension applicants have been completed (North Carolina militia, North Carolina Line, Georgia). A similar study of South Carolina soldiers who served in the Continental Line, state troops, and militia provides compiled demographic data of those who served in that state, […]
The Battle of Eutaw Springs, South Carolina, on September 8, 1781 was the last major open-field battle of the Revolutionary War and perhaps its most savage. The close-quarter fighting that occurred there ranks among the bloodiest and most intensely contested military encounters in young America’s quest for independence.[1] It has, however, been eclipsed in historical […]
Fabulous: adj. 1) wonderful; 2) existing only in fable. Emily Geiger is celebrated in numerous books and articles, memorialized on monuments, and portrayed in videos.[1] Her fame rests on the story that as a teenager she volunteered to carry a message from Gen. Nathanael Greene to Gen. Thomas Sumter in South Carolina when no man would […]
BOOK REVIEW: Leading Like the Swamp Fox: The Leadership Lessons of Francis Marion by Kevin Dougherty and Steven D. Smith (Philadelphia: Casemate Publishers, 2022) The past decade has seen a resurgence of interest in Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion, the Continental officer turned partisan commander who, along with Thomas Sumter, Andrew Pickens, and several lesser-known officers, […]
It is well known that George Washington was Nathanael Greene’s mentor in many ways, but luckily for many of us he did not completely share Washington’s personal discipline regarding intelligence activities in his official papers. With the exception of the Culper Ring, where the case officer for the network, Benjamin Tallmadge, often kept copies of […]
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] […]
On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Jeff Dacus on how Light Horse Harry Lee and Francis Marion were able to successfully capture British Fort Watson using a siege tower designed by Maj. Hezekiah Maham. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the American Revolution. Dispatches is a […]
As far back as the eleventh century B.C. attackers confronted by fortified cities and towns, castles, and forts, used siege towers to elevate their own soldiers to heights equal to the defenders. The Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, and Chinese all used such weapons to defeat enemies situated behind high walls. These machines of war provided the […]
The Revolutionary War in the Carolinas after the fall of Charleston was a great arena of war with hundreds of small battlefields. Some were battles involving a few dozen men, Tory or Whig Americans fighting each other or Whigs fighting British regulars. Other engagements involved hundreds of men, with dozens of casualties. Today, most of […]
Jordi Ferragut Mesquida, better known by his anglicized name George Farragut, was the only known Spanish volunteer who fought under the American flag in the War of American Independence. Over one hundred thousand Spanish soldiers and sailors fought against Britain during that war, such as Bernardo de Gálvez in the Gulf Coast, as well as […]
During the southern campaigns the British used two kinds of cipher, each kind being markedly different from the other. The First Kind of Cipher: The Common Cipher Earlier this year I was asked by an American historian[1] if I could decode the cipher in the following letter from Col. Francis Lord Rawdon, commanding in the upcountry […]
As November 1780 begins, we find Cornwallis continuing to wait at Winnsborough, South Carolina, in the hope of being joined by Major Gen. Alexander Leslie, a junction on which the winter campaign to the northward depended. Bound for the Chesapeake and placed under the orders of Cornwallis, Leslie had sailed from New York on October […]
No British officer was more reviled by Patriots in the South during the American Revolution than Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton. Based partly on fact and partly on myth, Tarleton’s name became synonymous with brutality to many Americans. Another British officer, although less infamous, earned a similar reputation for his actions in South Carolina in 1780. […]
As Nathanael Greene retreated from Ninety Six in late June 1781, following his unsuccessful siege there, Thomas Sumter was eager to campaign in lower South Carolina. This was a stratagem the Gamecock had employed before. Following Greene’s defeat at Hobkirk’s Hill on April 25, 1781, Sumter quickly opened a campaign against the British supply depots […]
In February 1781, Thomas Sumter emerged from his three-month convalescence to begin his next campaign in the South Carolina interior. Having been wounded seriously in the back, chest, and shoulder at the Battle of the Blackstocks, leading his militia army against a combined force of British regulars and volunteers commanded by the notorious Lt. Col. […]
Having recently discovered Journal of the American Revolution, I have spent many hours reading through the archive. I particularly enjoy reading the discussions that Top 10 Lists provoke and benefiting from such an incredible exchange of information and opinions. As there is a Top 10 List for Continental Army Generals, I decided to compile this […]
When news of Lord Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown on October 19, 1781 arrived in southeastern North Carolina well into November, the war there did not end. It did not end even after the British evacuated Wilmington on November 18, leaving local Tories without reliable supplies of ammunition. Instead, as William Ryan, a cavalry man under […]
The focus of my studies on the American Revolution is the militia activities in the southern campaigns. In this context, I believe the term ‘Partisan’ is best used when describing those men who turned from any thought of surrender after the fall of Charleston in May 1780. In considering candidates for the Top Ten Partisans […]
During 1780 and 1781, Brigadier General Francis Marion earned a reputation as the “Swamp Fox,” a virtually unbeatable partisan commander who foiled British efforts to pacify South Carolina and who defeated or evaded every British attempt to destroy his force. It was not until 1782 that Marion finally encountered an opponent capable of beating his […]
September 8, 1781 Francis Marion is best known for his leadership in the partisan war of 1780-1781, during which he and his volunteer militia harassed British troops and the Loyalist militia in South Carolina, first disrupting the British occupation of the state and later helping to clear royal forces from a considerable area. Once this […]
