Why Not Read About the War the South Won?

Freedom Giveaway Hop logoWelcome to my blog. The week of 1–7 July 2011, I’m participating with more than two hundred other bloggers in the “Freedom Giveaway Hop,” accessed by clicking on the logo at the left. All blogs in this hop offer book-related giveaways, and we’re all linked, so you can easily hop from one giveaway to another. But here on my blog, I’m posting a week of Relevant History essays, each one with a Revolutionary War theme. To find out how to qualify for the giveaways on my blog, read through each day’s Relevant History post below and follow the directions. Then click on the Freedom Hop logo so you can move along to another blog. Enjoy!

Note: I’ll be traveling a bit today, with sporadic access to the Internet mid-day. The posting of some comments may be delayed a few hours.

Charles Price author photoRelevant History welcomes author Charles F. Price, a historical novelist living near Burnsville, NC. He has written four books set in his native Southwestern North Carolina. They are Hiwassee: A Novel of the Civil War; Freedom’s Altar; The Cock’s Spur; and Where the Water-Dogs Laughed. He has won the Sir Walter Raleigh Award; a national Independent Publishers Book Award; and two historical fiction awards from the North Carolina Society of Historians. His most recent work is Nor the Battle to the Strong: A Novel of the American Revolution in the South. For more information, check his web site.

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As a native Southerner, I was, in my long-ago youth, an enthusiastic student of the Civil War. And while my heritage made it inevitable that I would admire the heroes of the Confederacy, in that bygone day it was also still possible to honor the great figures who strove to save the Union, and I did.

Ever since Appomattox some Southerners have sought to reconfigure the meaning of our great national conflict by insisting that human slavery was not its cause and that its true purpose was to win independence from Yankee Coercion, Northern Aggression, or some other attempt by the North to impose its will on a South determined only to preserve its traditions.

But however one construes these issues, during this Sesquicentennial of what I still insist on calling the Civil War, it seems to me impossible to regard that struggle as anything but an immense tragedy, especially for the South; or to deny that, for our region, it was, and remains in the collective memory, our peculiarly negative contribution to the history of the United States—negative in the sense that it bequeathed us sectional, racial, social and political attitudes that continue to divide some of us even one hundred and fifty years later.

I can already hear some of you out there tapping outraged counter-arguments, but before you continue, allow me to assert my pride in the Confederate service of my great-great grandfather Oliver Price and my great-great-uncles Andrew, Jack and Howell Curtis. Jack and Howell gave their lives in that service and Andrew died in an insane asylum as a result of what we would call post-traumatic stress disorder. Oliver Price served through the war only to be wounded in one of its last engagements, the battle of Bentonville in eastern North Carolina.

Some of you may know that my respect for my Confederate ancestors is so great that I devoted my first four novels to their lives and the lives of their families during and after the Civil War. I hope anyone who has been offended by my preliminary remarks will read those books before arraigning me as someone hostile to the notion of Southern honor.

Of course it’s not my purpose, during this celebration of our National Independence, to stir up divisive old animosities. On the contrary, those of us contributing to Suzanne’s blog during these special days are instead celebrating the memory of the American Revolution—the only successful, enduring national revolution in world history that has continued to grow and flourish over time by re-inventing, re-interpreting and striving always to perfect the essential values laid down by its Founders.

So here is my argument: The South won the War of the American Revolution. It is that achievement which represents its finest and most positive contribution to American history. It was that belief, confirmed by long and intense study, that led me to write my most recent work of historical fiction, Nor the Battle to the Strong: A Novel of the American Revolution in the South. I hope it won’t diminish the seriousness of my theory if I confess that my wife and wise collaborator Ruth devised a promotional handout when the book debuted in 2008 poking a bit of fun at the persisting (and competing) popularity of Civil War fiction. Its title was, “Why Not Read About the War the South Won?”

If the claim sounds extreme, pause and consider the history. The Revolutionary War stalemated in the North after the French alliance and the battle of Monmouth. The British then unveiled their Southern Strategy, believing Loyalist support in the region and alliances with Native Americans would help them reclaim Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia. Success in the South would then allow them either to sweep northward on a tide of victory and defeat George Washington or, under less propitious circumstances, approach the peace table and, by the principle of uti possedetis, at least hold the Southern colonies for England.

This strategy succeeded admirably at first with the fall of Savannah and then of Charleston, the conquest of South Carolina and the defeat of General Gates’ American army at Camden. But then, owing to incessant attacks by Southern partisans like Marion, Sumter, Pickens and Davie, together with the battlefield victories of the Overmountain Men at Kings Mountain and Daniel Morgan at The Cowpens, fortune began to turn against Cornwallis.

The decisive event of the Southern War was George Washington’s appointment of Major General Nathanael Greene to the command vacated by Gates. Greene, a Rhode Island-born ex-Quaker, self-taught in military affairs, proved an adroit and wily strategist. So thoroughly did he outmaneuver and exhaust the army of Cornwallis in North Carolina that—though the Earl won the engagement at Guilford Courthouse—his force was virtually incapacitated and he chose, rather than try conclusions again with Greene, to limp off to Wilmington to lick his wounds. Eventually he marched north into Virginia to meet his fate at Yorktown in October, 1781.

Americans are generally taught that the surrender of Cornwallis ended the Revolution. This is untue; Greene’s Southern army, suffering defeat after defeat at places like Ninety-Six, Hobkirk’s Hill and, debatably, Eutaw Springs, still, by stubborn perseverance and in the face of terrible want, during late 1781 and all of 1782 succeeded in winning back the Southern colonies and penning up the British in Charleston and Savannah, where they languished until their government began to seek a peace based on American independence. It is this story that I tell in my forthcoming book The Sunshine of Better Fortune.

Victory was the South’s gift to the thirteen colonies struggling to become a nation. That deserves to be remembered but instead has largely been forgotten, even by Southerners who should know better. The Civil War stands like a wall across Southern memory. If we can climb that wall and look eighty years farther into the past, we will see glory. We should honor it.

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Nor the Battle to the Strong book coverA big thanks to Charles Price. He’ll give away a print copy of Nor the Battle to the Strong to someone who contributes a legitimate comment on my blog today or tomorrow. Make sure you provide your email address. I’ll choose one winner from among those who comment on this post by Sunday 3 June at 6 p.m. ET, then publish the name of the winner on my blog the week of 11 July. Delivery is available within the U.S. only.

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Comments

Why Not Read About the War the South Won? — 29 Comments

  1. Intersting, as I truly believe that NO ONE wins in any war! But, well worth considering…….and does sound like interesting reading! Thanks for the thought provoking issues!

  2. Very interesting article. Ever since high school and an unconventional history teacher (Mr. Scurlock), I’ve enjoyed American history. Kings Mountain and the Overmountain Men continue to fascinate me, maybe because it was nearby (Greenville, SC). The war in the South seems to have been overlooked by many. I’ll enjoy reading about it from you.

  3. Hi Ellis, thanks for stopping by. “Mr. Scurlock” sounds like a great name for an unconventional history teacher. I’m glad he had the smarts to show you the big picture of Southern history.
    The war in the South seems to have been overlooked by many. Huge understatement!

  4. I very much appreciate all the comments so far. While I agree with Lynn and Suzanne that many wars have no winners, only losers, I think some wars–especially the Revolutionary War and our Civil War–have been necessary in order to settle certain isues of enormous significance, such as the slavery question and our independence. Ellis, you were fortunate to have that unconventional teacher. When I went through school the Revolution was taught as happening almost enitrely in the North. My research enlightened me as to the contribution of the South. I too would be interested in John’s take, as a Northerner, on my thoughts about the participation of the South in the achievement of American independence.

  5. Thank you for a fascinating post. When I studied the Revolution (many years ago), as far as I can remember everything was focused on the North – Boston, Trenton, New York, etc. I don’t recall much of anything about the war in the South. And there certainly wasn’t any mention about the war continuing for a year after Yorktown.
    I have to admit, I tended to skim over battles and such. I was much more interested in the period than the war. I may go back and read more about it now.

  6. Interesting blog. I remember my visit to Gettysburg, a haunting experience. My heart still breaks for the losses from both sides. Who said ‘What if they gave a war and no one came?’
    boots9k at wowway dot com

  7. Most Americans realize the devastating effect of the Valley Forge winter. Fewer acknowledge the war was virtually lost at that point. Congress was nearly bankrupt, Washington’s army was down to 3,000 men, support from allies was dwindling and Britain had launched a vigorous campaign in the South.
    It was the partisan response in the South, as you point out, that reinvigorated the North and inspired Washington to the defensive stategy that wore down the British and won.

  8. Love Charles’s work. As always, insightful and correct. In response to the question of the value of war, Benjamin Franklin probably made the most accurate statement when he wrote of the Second Treaty of Paris which ended the war: “We are all friends with England and all mankind. May we never see another War! For in my opinion there never was a good war or a bad peace.”

  9. Good to hear from you, Kathy, especially since you say you may go back and read more about the Revolution in the South. I hope you do; I hope many do. It’s the most unjustly neglected period in American history. I believe you’ll be fascinated as I was.

  10. Shirley, nice to see you here again! I wish more people had your empathy and could feel how both sides in war lose. My sons and I have been involved in Revolutionary War reenacting since they were very young. We reenact on the Crown forces side. It has taught both of them to see two sides to an argument.

  11. Those who fought the Civil War were kinder to their foes than today’s pundits, but then the foes were often family. Hence, the origin of Memorial Day.
    Same with the Revolution.
    Victors, or their progeny, may write history–initially. But as you show, truth is the daughter of time.

  12. John, also, if Baron von Steuben hadn’t stepped into the picture to whip the Continentals into an army right after Valley Forge, all Washington would have had to work with would have been gung-ho partisans.

  13. Wow, lots of comments today! I’m happy to have instigated a lively conversation. First let me say a big “thank you” to Chris Swager, a fine historian of the Revolution who also, if memory serves, has family roots on the Loyalist side, as do I. Ancestors on my father’s side were recent immigrants from Wales to North Carolina when the Revolution broke out, and they were indicted in Rutherford County for treason, only to be pardoned after the peace. A maternal ancestor, James Johnson, was in the Continental army, so I had family on both sides of the conflict. Scott and Shirley seem to think my blog entry is about the Civil War, not the Revolution; I have a good friend who calls the Civil War the Second War for Southern Independence. I guess a case can be made for that, though it’s not one I subscribe to. John’s comment about Baron von Steuben is both correct and pertinent. James Johnson is a character in my book “Nor the Battle to the Strong;” he was actually drilled by Steuben at Point of Fork Arsenal in Virginia before marching South to join Nathanael Greene’s army. Eventually he served in William Washington’s cavalry.

  14. Thank you for the giveaway! I don’t really think anyone truly wins either…too much loss and pain. GFC Krystal Larson edysicecreamlover18@gmailDOTcom

  15. My roomie and I (mostly me) just started to watch “America: The History of Us” on NetFlix and I just learned about this very thing! I was fascinated! The South absolutely won the Revolutionary war. Excellent article.

  16. There is an article in the Spartanburg Herald today about two reenactors entitled “Equipping a Soldier.” It includes comments as to why two men continue trying to keep history alive. Robert Hall said that he became involved “as a way to honor the memory of my ancestors.” That really struck a chord with me, because I believe this is why I write about the Revolutionary War. (If you are interested, you can scroll through http://www.goupstate.com/ to read the article.) I agree with Charles we should honor them.

  17. Thanks, Sheila! The direct link to the story is here.
    The story ends with a quote from a South Carolina reenactor: “We have such a rich Revolutionary War history here, and people don’t know about it.” So true. If you’re in the South, you can find a partial list of annual Revolutionary War reenactments here.

  18. I believe the assassination Of Abraham Lincoln was was even more a tragedy for the South than for the North. He believed that the union was never broken and advocated reconciliation and forgiveness.

  19. Just wanted to thank Warren for his comment and to say I agree with him wholeheartedly. Imagine the post-Civil War period with Lincoln filling out his second term. All our subsequent history would probably have been very different, and very much better.

  20. Fascinating post, and thank you for sharing with us all that the South has great history to honor (and for calling the Civil War something other than the “War of Northern Aggression”).
    For some reason I seem extremely grateful today with this political climate that the Revolution and the Civil War are both being highlighted by historians so that we can learn from them…after all, didn’t someone once say “Those who neglect history are condemned to repeat it.”?
    Thank you Suzanne for hosting this wonderful blog and for having such intriguing guests.