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The stories of Southern brigadier generals during the Revolutionary War remain largely forgotten or untold, but their experiences were unique. During the war, 13 of the 58 brigadier generals (the lowest-ranking generals) who served under George Washington died because of combat wounds or under British captivity. Seven of those 13 hailed from the southernmost and (excepting Virginia) less populated colonies. Proportionally, they were more likely to become casualties or prisoners than were their Northern counterparts, and they were far more likely than were the more senior major generals (only one of whom died during the war, out of 28 total officers).
This book profiles the 18 Southern brigadier generals and their service during the American Revolution. It makes the case that Washington and his brigadier generals, especially the Southern brigadiers, won the war in spite of the major generals, many of whom exhibited cowardice, alcoholism, insubordination, womanizing, or ineffective leadership; more than half of the major generals were effectively cashiered or voluntarily left military service long before Yorktown and the war's conclusion. The author demonstrates that, as much as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and other politicians, the war's brigadier generals should be viewed as founding fathers, too.
List of contents
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
Part I-Varying Precursors to War
¿1.¿Pre-Revolution Call to Arms
¿2.¿George Weedon's Tavern in Virginia
¿3.¿Backcountry Patriots? The Regulators in North Carolina
¿4.¿Earliest Military Exploits: North Carolina's James Moore and Richard Caswell
¿5.¿Threats on the Southern Border: Defending Coastal Georgia
¿6.¿Character Attacks, Misfortune, and Survival: Brigadier Lachlan McIntosh of Georgia
Part II-Southerners and the Earliest Beginnings of War
¿7.¿Battle of Point Pleasant (1774)
¿8.¿Largely Forgotten: Brigadier Andrew Lewis of Virginia
¿9.¿The Failed Assault on Charles Town (1776)
10.¿Brigadier William Moultrie of South Carolina
Part III-Difficulties of Revolutionary Command
11.¿Service and Travel in Colonial Times
12.¿Intoxicating Beverages and Inebriation
13.¿Militia Units versus the Continental Line
Part IV-Also Mentioned in the Dispatches: 1775
14.¿War Within the War: Lord Dunmore's Second War
15.¿Virginia Planter William Woodford
Part V-Mentioned in the Dispatches
16.¿"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death": Virginia's Brigadier Hugh Mercer at Princeton
17.¿Scout and Woodsman: Charles Scott
18.¿Fighting Parson: Lutheran Minister Peter Muhlenberg at Brandywine
19.¿Brigadier Francis Nash of North Carolina at Germantown
Part VI-Punctilios of Honor Beyond Sensitive
20.¿Rivalries and Resignations
21.¿Pretenders, Parvenus, and Armchair Generals
Part VII-The Southern Campaign: 1779-1781
22.¿Civil War Commences in the South: Patriot versus Loyalist at King's Mountain and Cowpens
23.¿Waggoner Daniel Morgan of Virginia
24.¿The Piedmont Partisan: William Lee Davidson of North Carolina
25.¿Route to Yorktown: The Battle of Guilford Courthouse
Part VIII-British Foment Among and Alliances with Native Americans
26.¿Attempts to Neutralize the Northwest Territory: George Rogers Clark of Virginia
27.¿Postscript: Post War Biographies
28.¿Society of the Cincinnati
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Douglas M. Branson is the Sell Chair in Law (emeritus) at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of more than 20 books.
