The road to Charleston : Nathanael Greene and the American Revolution /
John Buchanan.
- Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, (c)2019.
- 1 online resource (xviii, 389 pages) : illustrations, maps.
Includes bibliographies and index.
"We march tomorrow directly for South Carolina" -- "We must endeavor to keep up a partizan war" -- "We fight get beat rise and fight again" -- "The revolt was universal" -- A "judicious and gallant defense" -- Surrender is "inadmissible" -- A bravura performance -- Dog days -- The "confidence and good opinion of those in power" -- "We obtained a complete victory" (Greene)/"I totally defeated him" (Stewart) -- High drama on Cape Fear -- "Like Goths and Vandals of old" -- "They would make good soldiers" -- Missions impossible -- Departures -- Greene was the maestro.
"A sequel to the author's The road to Guilford Courthouse, The road to Charleston is a narrative history of the second half of the critical Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War, which begins shortly after the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, March 1781, and ends with the British evacuation of Charleston in December 1782." In The Road to Guilford Courthouse, one of the most acclaimed military histories of the Revolutionary War ever written, John Buchanan explored the first half of the critical Southern Campaign and introduced readers to its brilliant architect, Major General Nathanael Greene. In this long-awaited sequel, Buchanan brings this story to its dramatic conclusion. Greene's Southern Campaign was the most difficult of the war. With a supply line stretching hundreds of miles northward, it revealed much about the crucial military art of provision and transport. Insufficient manpower a constant problem, Greene attempted to incorporate black regiments into his army, a plan angrily rejected by the South Carolina legislature. A bloody civil war between Rebels and Tories was wreaking havoc on the South at the time, forcing Greene to address vigilante terror and restore civilian government. As his correspondence with Thomas Jefferson during the campaign shows, Greene was also bedeviled by the conflict between war and the rights of the people, and the question of how to set constraints under which a free society wages war. Joining Greene is an unforgettable cast of characters--men of strong and, at times, antagonistic personalities--all of whom are vividly portrayed. We also follow the fate of Greene's tenacious foe, Lieutenant Colonel Francis, Lord Rawdon. By the time the British evacuate Charleston--and Greene and his ragged, malaria-stricken, faithful Continental Army enter the city in triumph--the reader has witnessed in telling detail one of the most punishing campaigns of the Revolution, culminating in one of its greatest victories.