Category: Campaigns

Mercer’s Grenadier Militia

On By Phill GreenwaltIn Armies, Battlefields & Historic Places, Battles, Campaigns, Common Soldier, Emerging Civil War, Memory, Personalities, Revolutionary War2 Comments

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Emerging Revolutionary War and Revolutionary War Wednesday is pleased to welcome back guest historian Drew Gruber.

Part 1

When we think about American militia during the Revolutionary War, the image of an untrained rifle-toting citizen turned soldier comes to mind. This stereotype of the American soldier, popularized by movies like The Patriot is not completely false but such generalizations should give us pause and inspire us to investigate the roll of American militia, independent companies, and ‘irregular’ troops a bit closer. For example, how was it that on October 3, 1781 a group of Virginia militiamen defeated an elite British force? The story of Lieutenant Colonel John Mercer’s Grenadier Militia during the battle at Seawell’s Ordinary has been told and retold since 1781, however the formation of this illustrious group is often ignored and deserves a closer look. Continue reading “Mercer’s Grenadier Militia” →

Looking Back to Cowpens: William J. Hardee and the Battle of Averasboro

On By Phill GreenwaltIn Armies, Battlefields & Historic Places, Battles, Campaigns, Common Soldier, Personalities, Revolutionary War3 Comments
Lieutenant General William J. Hardee.
Lieutenant General William J. Hardee.

After abandoning Fayetteville, North Carolina to Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s army group, Lieutenant General William J. Hardee withdrew his corps north of the city. Hardee had ordered the Clarendon Bridge over the Cape Fear River destroyed, removing the possibility of a vigorous pursuit by the Federals. The situation for the Confederates, however, remained dire. Hardee’s immediate superior, Gen. Joseph Johnston, was in the process of assembling a makeshift army to delay Sherman’s advance. By the middle of March, the forces that Johnston hoped to consolidate were still scattered throughout the state. More time would be needed for the Confederates to rendezvous. Since Hardee’s corps was naturally positioned to contest the enemy as they left Fayetteville, it would fall to him to engage Sherman once he resumed his march. The veteran officer would prove to be more than equal to the task.

Continue reading “Looking Back to Cowpens: William J. Hardee and the Battle of Averasboro” →

George Washington Remembers

On By Phill GreenwaltIn Battlefields & Historic Places, Battles, Campaigns, Revolutionary War2 Comments

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Today, we are pleased to welcome guest author Bert Dunkerly.

WashingtonGeneral George Washington looks back at us from marble statues or stiff paintings with a grim-faced and determined look. Known for his dignity, resolve, and sound leadership, he seems cold and reserved. Yet he was also quite sentimental. In the midst of a campaign, with a massive British invasion force set to descend on him at New York City in July, 1776, Washington paused to pen these words: “I did not let the Anniversary of the 3rd or 9th of this Inst pas[s] of[f] without a grateful remembrance of the escape we had at the Meadows and on the Banks of the Monogahela. [T]he same Providence that protected us upon those occasions will, I hope, continue his Mercies, and make us happy instruments in restoring Peace & liberty to this once favour’d, but now distressed Country”.

Continue reading “George Washington Remembers” →

Revolutionary Memory

On By Phill GreenwaltIn Armies, Battlefields & Historic Places, Battles, Campaigns, Revolutionary WarLeave a comment

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Today, we are pleased to welcome guest authors Drew and Kate Gruber.

Fort Moultrie, Charleston Harbor by A. Vizitelly c.1861. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Fort Moultrie, Charleston Harbor by A. Vizitelly c.1861. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

“There appears to be a romantic desire urging the South Carolinians to have possession of this work, which was so nobly defended by their ancestors in 1776…” wrote Major Robert Anderson from Fort Moultrie on November 28, 1860, less than five months before the first shots of the American Civil War. Many historians of American history have looked upon the Civil War as a continuation of the American Revolution. Looking back today, the similarities are not hard to see. According to historian Peter S. Carmichael, confederates “proclaimed their nation to be the keeper of America’s revolutionary heritage.”[1] Similarly, James McPherson notes that “Union volunteers invoked the legacy of the Founding Fathers…if disunion destroyed this nation, the generation of 1861 would prove unworthy of the heritage of republican liberty.”[2] This idea was not lost on Civil War soldiers, and their own connection to the ideals of the American Revolution grew even stronger when their marches and battles brought them close to, and even directly on, the landscapes and landmarks sacred to the memory of the American Revolution—soldiers were quick to identify the cause of the Revolution as their own. As soldiers converged on Mount Vernon, Williamsburg, and Yorktown, the connections they made to the revolutionary past of these locations strengthened their own resolve.

Continue reading “Revolutionary Memory” →