South’s Role in American Revolution Pivotal

Independence Day is a good day to consider how our independence was won. If you’re looking for a fresh read on that, I’ve just finished reading Alan Pell Crawford’s new book, This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America’s Revolutionary War in the South. The subtitle is a major exaggeration: Little in this book is new or untold, as is evident from Crawford’s nine-page bibliography. But if the story of how the events of 1780–81 in the Carolinas were crucial to the American victory in the Revolution is far from untold, it remains underappreciated. Crawford provides a vivid, page-turning account of those events, rich in memorable characters and dramatic scenes.

In the standard schoolboy narrative of the Revolution, the North takes the starring role. Things began in Boston, with the Massacre, the Tea Party, the Intolerable Acts, Lexington and Concord, and Bunker Hill. The war was then largely prosecuted in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania from 1776 to 1779, with famous battles at Long Island, Trenton, Saratoga, Brandywine, and Monmouth. The Declaration of Independence and the hard winter at Valley Forge came in Pennsylvania. Then, miraculously, the opportunity presented itself to trap Cornwallis at Yorktown, Va., and the war was decided in a fell swoop.

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

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Independence Day is a good day to consider how our independence was won. If you’re looking for a fresh read on that, I’ve just finished reading Alan Pell Crawford’s new book, This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America’s Revolutionary War in the South. The subtitle is a major exaggeration: Little in this book is new or untold, as is evident from Crawford’s nine-page bibliography. But if the story of how the events of 1780–81 in the Carolinas were crucial to the American victory in the Revolution is far from untold, it remains underappreciated. Crawford provides a vivid, page-turning account of those events, rich in memorable characters and dramatic scenes.

In the standard schoolboy narrative of the Revolution, the North takes the starring role. Things began in Boston, with the Massacre, the Tea Party, the Intolerable Acts, Lexington and Concord, and Bunker Hill. The war was then largely prosecuted in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania from 1776 to 1779, with famous battles at Long Island, Trenton, Saratoga, Brandywine, and Monmouth. The Declaration of Independence and the hard winter at Valley Forge came in Pennsylvania. Then, miraculously, the opportunity presented itself to trap Cornwallis at Yorktown, Va., and the war was decided in a fell swoop.