In December 1780, former Quaker turned general Nathanael Greene took command of the entire Southern Department. He reported only to George Washington himself. Leadership of the southern states to that point in the American Revolution had failed, as the British held all major southern cities, including the important port city of Charleston. Greene faced the British in several key battles in South Carolina in 1781 and ultimately was able to rid the state of the British and free Charleston, but not until 1782, long after the victory at Yorktown. Join author and historian Leigh Moring as she tells the forgotten story of General Nathanael Greene and the liberation of the Lowcountry at the end of the American Revolution.

"Offers new perspectives on Greene's leadership of continental troops, his use of the mounted troops of South Carolina partisan leaders Thomas Sumter and Francis Marion, his integration of local militia into his fighting force, and his proposal that slaves be armed and freed in return for their military service"--Dust jacket.

The intriguing life story of an unsung hero of the American Revolution from award-winning author Gerald M. Carbone. When the Revolutionary War began, Nathanael Greene was a private in the militia, the lowest rank possible, yet he emerged from the war with a reputation as George Washington's most gifted and dependable officer--celebrated as one of three most important generals. Upon taking command of America's Southern Army in 1780, Nathanael Greene was handed troops that consisted of 1,500 starving, nearly naked men. Gerald Carbone explains how within a year, the small worn-out army ran the British troops out of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina and into the final trap at Yorktown. Despite his huge military successes and tactical genius Greene's story has a dark side. Gerald Carbone drew on 25 years of reporting and researching experience to create his chronicle of Greene's unlikely rise to success and his fall into debt and anonymity.

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.

These volumes, published in conjunction with the Rhode Island Historical Society, represent the result of an exhaustive search for documents relating to the life and career of Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene. The papers--letters and documents received by Greene as well as those sent by him--are carefully edited and fully annotated. The editors reproduce many items in full but abstract papers that are of lesser significance. Greene, who served as quartermaster general of the army and later as commander of the forces fighting in the southern theater, is generally considered the ablest of Washington's generals. His papers are a vital source of information on the war itself as well as on the man.

This story of a conflict between two commanders amid the struggle to oust the British from South Carolina is “great for anyone teaching leadership” (Military Review). As the newly appointed commander of the Southern Continental Army in December 1780, Nathanael Greene quickly realized victory would not only require defeating the British Army, but also subduing the region’s brutal civil war. “The division among the people is much greater than I imagined, and the Whigs and the Tories persecute each other, with little less than savage fury,” wrote Greene. Part of Greene’s challenge involved managing South Carolina’s determined but unreliable Patriot militia, led by Thomas Sumter, the famed “Gamecock.” Though Sumter would go on to a long political career, it was as a defiant partisan that he first earned the respect of his fellow backcountry settlers, a command that would compete with Greene for status and stature in the Revolutionary War’s “Southern Campaign.” Despite these challenges, Greene was undaunted. Born to a devout Quaker family, and influenced by the faith’s tenets, Greene instinctively understood that the war’s Southern theater involved complex political, personal, and socioeconomic challenges, not just military ones. Though he was never a master of the battlefield, Greene’s mindful leadership style established his historic legacy. The Quaker and the Gameccock tells the story of these two wildly divergent leaders against the backdrop of the American Revolution’s last gasp, the effort to extricate a British occupation force from the wild and lawless South Carolina frontier. For Greene, the campaign meant a last chance to prove his capabilities as a general, not just a talented administrator. For Sumter, it was a quest of personal revenge that showcased his innate understanding of the backcountry character. Both men needed the other to defeat the British, yet their forceful personalities, divergent leadership styles, and opposing objectives would clash again and again, in a fascinating story of our nation’s bloody birth that still influences our political culture. “A brilliant account of the military campaigns and collaborations between Greene and Sumter.” —The Colonial Review