Col. Abraham Buford is most famous for his defeat at Waxhaws, South Carolina, on May 29, 1780. His defiant message to Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton, his order for his men to hold their fire until it was too late, and the subsequent chaos and bloodshed that was later called the Waxhaws Massacre is well-known. What is […]
The Race to the Dan is a famous part of the Southern War of the American Revolution, a strategic retreat by Gen Nathanael Greene, that once across the Dan River, allowed the Southern Army to regroup and resupply. Ten days later Greene recrossed the Dan, was reinforced and on March 15, 1781 fought the Battle […]
In the South, the American Revolution was largely a civil war, one between Whig supporters of American liberties and Loyalists or Tories, who remained attached to the crown. Both sides strove to encourage and maintain the support they had among the people, and to attract to their side the neutrals or uncommitted inhabitants. Historian John […]
To the End of the World: Nathanael Greene, Charles Cornwallis, and the Race to the Dan by Andrew Waters (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2020) “In a place like Salisbury,” writes Andrew Waters of the North Carolina town that witnessed the 1781 Race to the Dan, “you can live among its ghosts and still not know […]
It had been a tense three weeks in the Carolinas for General Nathanael Greene, the commander of the American southern army. In the wake of General Daniel Morgan’s decisive victory at Cowpens on January 17th, 1781, General Greene moved to reunite his divided army. While Morgan’s 550 man light corps slowly withdrew northeastward into North […]
