Overview

An exciting and accurate portrayal of the military action in the southern colonies that led to a new American nation. Following up the success of his 1777: The Year of the Hangman about the northern theaters of the American Revolutionary War, historian John Pancake now cover the war in the South, from General Clinton's attack on Charleston in the spring of 1780 to Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown in October 1781. Pancake expertly takes the reader back and forth between British and American headquarters to provide a brisk and sharp view from both sides of the conflict. His artful analysis also adds insights to the familiar narrative of the British losing because of their mistakes, American victory thanks to tenacity (particularly in the person of southern Continental forces commander Nathanael Greene), and British failure to overcome logistical problems of geography. Readers enjoy Pancake's wide-ranging knowledge of military history as applied to the Revolution as where, for example, he cites that tests conducted by the US Navy in World War II demonstrated that gun crews that were 100 percent efficient in training lost 35 percent of their efficiency in their first performance in combat. Pancake has a writer's eye for telling details, and he creates characters sketches of the main players in the conflict that readers will always remember. This Destructive War includes a number of figures as well as detailed maps of the region where battle took place. General readers as well as scholars and students of the American Revolution will welcome anew this classic, definitive study of the campaign in the Carolinas.

Full Product Details

9780817306885

Table of Contents

Reviews

Anchored by Pancake's reflections on weaponry, military organization, tactics, and the lives of ordinary soldiers in both armies, this book emerges as a fresh, intricate story, full of dread and derring-do.

Anchored by Pancake's reflections on weaponry, military organization, tactics, and the lives of ordinary soldiers in both armies, this book emerges as a fresh, intricate story, full of dread and derring-do. --Kirkus

Anchored by Pancake's reflections on weaponry, military organization, tactics, and the lives of ordinary soldiers in both armies, this book emerges as a fresh, intricate story, full of dread and derring-do.--Kirkus

Anchored by Pancake's reflections on weaponry, military organization, tactics, and the lives of ordinary soldiers in both armies, this book emerges as a fresh, intricate story, full of dread and derring-do. <i> Kirkus</i>

"""Anchored by Pancake's reflections on weaponry, military organization, tactics, and the lives of ordinary soldiers in both armies, this book emerges as a fresh, intricate story, full of dread and derring-do.""--Kirkus"

How Great Britain, after nearly five years of armed struggle with its rebellious American colonies, mounted one last-ditch attempt to beat them back into submission: a real cliff-hanger, spun out with the same care and cool sophistication that military historian Pancake (Alabama) brought to his 1777: The Year of The Hangman (1977). Many things contributed to the British decision to launch a southern offensive, Pancake explains: frustration and stalemate in the north, the personalities and preconceptions of military commanders (especially Sir Henry Clinton and Charles Earl Cornwallis), much wishful thinking about Loyalist strength there (especially on the part of Lord George Germain), Parliamentary maneuvering, the deceptively easy conquests of Savannah and Charleston in early 1780, and the fiat-out incompetence of Horatio Gates, commander of the American forces. Once the invasion had gone into high gear, however, a nasty civil war broke out between Whigs and Loyalists, straining British resources and exposing Britain's inability to protect its civilian supporters. The rebels began to fight back with increased effectiveness under such legendary leaders as Francis Marion, Daniel Morgan, Light Horse Harry Lee, and above all Nathaniel Greene, who replaced the hapless Gates and (as Pancake tells it) became the architect of an eventual American victory. By the summer of 1781 - pressured by the French fleet under de Grasse and battered by losses at Kings Mountain, the Cowpens, Guilford Court House (about which Pancake has a few new points to make), and Eutaw Springs - Cornwallis had abandoned the Carolinas and holed up in Yorktown. HIS surrender in October, 1781, marked the end of the campaign, the end of Germain, and the end of the war. Anchored by Pancake's reflections on weaponry, military organization, tactics, and the lives of ordinary soldiers in both armies, this emerges as a fresh, intricate story, full of dread and derring-do. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

John S. Pancake was a native of Virginia, Professor of History at The University of Alabama, and author of studies on Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available