From Savannah to Yorktown: The American Revolution in the South

By Henry Lumpkin

Book Overview

Bloodshed in the American Revolution began in Massachusetts and ended in South Carolina. That the last major action of the war occurred in the South was no accident. The British regarded the South as their best chance of crushing the rebellion, and a southern strategy governed British military campaigning during the decisive years from 1778 to 1781. How that strategy failed in Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia is answered in this highly readable military history, which carries the reader from the early backcountry skirmishes to the climactic triumph at Yorktown. From Savannah to Yorktown sketches many of the colorful field commanders, discusses the weaponry and uniforms, and, above all, unfolds the battle events, strategy, and tactics. Well-illustrated with maps, portraits, battle scenes, and arms, this first comprehensive military history devoted to the American Revolution in the South will be welcomed by anyone interested in the southern battleground of freedom.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087249408X
• ISBN13: 9780872494084
• Release Date: January 1981
• Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
• Length: 332 Pages
• Weight: 2.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The big hole in Rev War history gets filled

Gotta gotta gotta read this book. While the South is treated like a sideshow by northern historians the reality is the British lost the war there. This is a chronological study beginning with the fall of Savannah. After the disaster in South Carolina it is difficult to believe the war was not in fact lost. Yet somehow, with pluck and courage and unorthodox tactics these tough rural people brought down the mightiest army in the world. Modern historians, especially of the cultural marxist ilk are trying to reframe the campaign as a sadistic civil war. There was that component but it misses the larger picture. The Revolution was not only idealogically framed by Southerners (Jefferson), and led by a Southerners (Washington), it was won by Southerners (Marion, Sumter, Pickens and Morgan).

Excellent Book on the Original Civil War in the South!

Lumpkin has written an excellent account of the American Revolutionary War in the South in which family members and friends fought each other - the original Civil War!The author describes the actions in the South from the 1776 British attack on Charleston to the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781. In between the two engagements, Lumpkin also includes: Savannah, British capture of Charleston, Camden, Cowpens, Kings Mountain, Guilford Courthouse, Ninety-Six, and several smaller engagements. Since the war was won in the South, it is only fitting that such a text would be devoted to the southern theatre.While the narrative was extremely interesting and readable, there were few campaign and battle maps. Including more maps would have made the strategies and tactics easier to understand and would have merited (in my humble opinion) a 5-star rating.Complaint aside, I highly recommend the book as a very interesting account of what happened in the South during the American Revolution!Read and enjoy!

Good overall account of the war in the South

I recommend this book for those interested in a clear ande concise narrative account of the American Revolution in the South. Although not as dramatic as Buchanan's THE ROAD TO GUILFORD COURTHOUSE (which I do not recommend) Lumpkin's book is well worth reading and generally accurate. His analysis is solid, a description I would not give to THE ROAD TO GUILFORD COURTHOUSE.

The Long Road Back

The southern campaigns of the Revolution, starting with the disastrous defeat at Camden in August 1780 and culminating in Greene's successful containment of the British in the seaports of Charleston and Savannah. Greene never won an engagement, but never lost a campaign. In many ways he was the American Turenne, relentlessly campaigning through the Carolinas, respected and feared by his enemies, diligently followed by his disciplined, intrepid, and indefatigable Continentals, and served by a talented, tough group of subordinates such as Robert Kirkwood, Otho Williams, William Washinton, John Howard, and Edward Carrington. It was there, in the humid south, that the Revolution was won. It was the mauling given the British at Guilford Couthouse in March 1781, so soon after Camden, that drove Cornwallis to the decision to go into Virginia and to Yorktown. In that alone, the campaign was decisive.Lumpkin tells the story with wit, vigor, relentlessness, but not a few errors, which are minor. It is well-illustrated (I especially liked the picture of a member of Lee's Legion done by Clyde Risley-one of my favorite military artists), and the appendices are very helpful. In some areas of smaller detail, the book should be used with caution, but if used in conjunction with Wright's Continental Army and Ward's War of the Revolution, it is a reliable reference, a good story, and gives these long-forgotten campaigns a deserved look and the men who conducted the war in this theater long overdue recognition.

The Personality of our Revolutionary War

Henry Lumpkin did a superb job detailing the battles leading to the close of the Revolutionary War. One of very few histories to mention/detail the massacre at the 1st Seige of Augusta (Sept 1780), his information clarified old family papers about my 6th great-grandfather's death there. This book is well-researched, easily read, very informative, descriptive, and cannot help but evoke emotion from its readers. Mr Lumpkin was quite successful in his discription of the viewpoints of the non-soldiers, the brother-against-brother, militiamen, Loyalists, Continental Army, the British, the trained officers, the untrained leaders, and the Native American's participation during their desparate fight for victory. This book is just different enough, it draws you into history as if it were happening now.