Southern Theater of the American Revolutionary War

In the first three to four years of the conflict, the largest clashes were in the north, in campaigns around Boston , New York and Philadelphia . After the failure of the campaign in Saratoga, the British basically abandoned operations in the Mid-Atlantic colonies and began to pursue a strategy of appeasement in the south ^[1] . But even then the scale of the fighting until 1780 remained small.

For too long, the British government overestimated the influence of the loyalists in the Southern colonies, and tried to achieve their goals with their hands, with minimal support from the army, or even without it.

Until 1778, governments and militias controlled by patriots predominated in the southern colonies for the most part (the British called them rebels ), although there was some presence of the Continental Army , which played a role in the defense of Charleston in 1776 , in suppressing the militias of the loyalists, and in trying to expel the British from East Florida , which remained strongly loyalist.

While the actions of the loyalists, and especially the regular British army , often relied on the support of the fleet , the Continental Army and the rebel colonists waged a mostly land war. Therefore, the efforts of the British often focused on controlling ports and major cities, while their adversary felt more confident in the depths of the earth.

The British “southern strategy” began at the end of 1778 with the capture of Savannah , Georgia , followed in 1780 by operations in South Carolina , including the defeat of the Continental Army under Charleston and Camden . General Nathaniel Green , who took command of the Continental Army after Camden, adopted a strategy of dodging and war of attrition against the British. Two armies fought a series of battles, most of which were tactical victories for the British. In almost all cases, however, the “victories” strategically weakened the British army due to high casualties, while the Continental Army remained almost untouched and continued to fight. The best example is the Battle of Guildford Court House . Rare American victories such as Coopens and Kings Mountain also served as a general weakening of British forces. The culmination was the siege of Yorktown , which ended with the surrender of the British army, and essentially put an end to British power in the colonies.

British officials quickly left most of the colonies when the patriots took control of them. But in Virginia, the royal governor resisted. During the Gunpowder incident on April 20, 1775, Lord Dunmore , the Royal Governor of Virginia, took gunpowder stored in Williamsburg onto a British warship at the mouth of the James River . Dunmore saw growing discontent in the colony and tried to strip the Virginia militia of the military supplies needed for the uprising. A militia of patriots led by Patrick Henry forced Dunmore to pay for gunpowder. In the following months, Dunmore continued to hunt for caches of weapons and supplies. In some cases, the militias foresaw its actions, and hid the contents until it appeared.

In November 1775, Dunmore issued a proclamation on the liberation of slaves , promising freedom to runaway slaves who would agree to fight for the British. After the November incident at Kemp Marina, when Dunmore’s troops killed and captured the patriotic militias, the patriotic forces defeated the loyalists (including the fugitive slaves from whom Dunmore formed his Ethiopian Regiment) at the Battle of Great Bridge. Dunmore and his troops retreated to the ships of the Royal Navy , anchored at Norfolk . These ships shelled and burned the city on January 1, 1776 (although the patriots in the city had already completed the destruction of this former stronghold of the loyalists). That summer, Dunmore was banished from an island in the Chesapeake Bay , and never returned to Virginia. Most of the slaves who enlisted in the Dunmore regiment died in battle or from disease.

The Royal Governor of Georgia , James Wright, nominally remained in power until January 1776, when the unexpected appearance of British ships at Savannah prompted the local Security Committee to order his arrest. Both patriots and loyalists of Georgia believed that the fleet had arrived to provide military support to the governor. In fact, the fleet was sent from besieged Boston to purchase rice and other products for the British troops. Wright managed to escape the arrest and get to the ships. After the battle of rice boats in early March, the British successfully withdrew merchant ships from the Savannah with a load of the desired products.

When the war broke out, the population of South Carolina was politically divided. The flat settlements, gravitating to Charleston , held strong revolutionary views, while inland there were many people sympathizing with the loyalists. By August 1775, both sides were recruiting companies of the militia. In September, a militia of patriots captured the main fortifications of Fort Johnson, Charleston, and Governor William Campbell fled to the Royal Navy ship in the harbor. The loyalists' seizure of a load of gunpowder and ammunition destined for the Cherokee Indians caused an escalation of tension that led to the first siege of Ninety-Six at the end of November. The recruitment of patriots into the militia by that time was ahead of the recruitment of loyalists, and as a result of a large campaign (the so-called Snow Campaign , due to unusually heavy snowfall) with up to 5,000 patriots led by Colonel Richard Richardson, they managed to capture or expel most of the loyalist leaders. Loyalists fled, mostly to East Florida or to Cherokee. The latter rose in support of British troops and loyalists in 1776 , but were suppressed in a series of brutal raids against their settlements by North and South Carolina militias.

Charleston First Assault

Crucial in all British efforts to regain control of the South was the possession of ports, for the delivery of people and supplies. Therefore (and also counting on the strong support of the loyalists), the British conceived an expedition to create a strong point somewhere in the southern colonies, and began to send officers to recruit loyalists to North Carolina. But the sending of the expedition from Europe was severely delayed, and the need to send forces to help Canada in the winter campaign of 1775-1776 disrupted preparations. Enlisted loyalists were defeated at the bridge across the Moore Creek on February 27, 1776 . ^[2] Instead of focusing his remaining forces on the strategically important assault on New York , Clinton took advantage of the ambiguity in the wording of the orders received with Cornwallis from London, and made them an expedition to the south. ^[2]

When General Henry Clinton connected with Cornwallis at Cape Fear in North Carolina in May, he found that the conditions there were unsuitable for creating a strong outpost. Royal Navy Intelligence identified Charleston as a more suitable location, with unfinished fortifications that seemed vulnerable. On June 28, 1776, Clinton and Commodore Sir Peter Parker launched an attack on Fort Sullivan , guarding Charleston from the harbor. Clinton did not conduct a full reconnaissance of the area. Its 2,200 people landed on Long Island, adjacent to Sullivan Island, where the fort was located; the channel separating the two islands was too deep to ford . Instead of putting people in boats again, he relied on shelling ships, hoping to crush the fort (after the war it became known as Fort Multry). However, the firepower of the fleet was not able to cause noticeable damage to the porous palm logs, of which the fortifications mainly consisted, and the bombardment did not reach its goal ^[3] . Not only that, the frigate HMS Actaeon ran aground in front of the fort. It was not possible to remove it, it was abandoned and burned to avoid captivity ^[2] .

After this humiliating failure, the Clinton campaign in Carolina was recalled. Subsequently, Clinton and Parker were accused of failure to assault each other ^[4] . Some authors believe that the South was lost to Britain in 1776, with failure in Charleston, as the loyalists were left without support for three years, and as a result, the port of Charleston served the Americans until 1780 .

British East Florida

Georgia’s patriots tried several times to defeat the British garrison , which settled in St. Agustin in British East Florida . This garrison actively supported the activities of the loyalists who fled there from Georgia and other southern states, and raided cattle and land in southern Georgia. The first attempt was made by Charles Lee , after taking command of the Southern contingent of the Continental Army. But the attempt ran out when he was recalled to the main army. The second attempt was organized by the Governor of Georgia Button Gwinnett with minimal assistance from the new commander of the Southern contingent, Robert Howe, in 1777 . This expedition also failed because Gwynnet and the militia commander, Lachlan Mackintosh, could not agree on anything. Some militia companies did penetrate East Florida, but were stopped at Thomas Creek in May. The last expedition took place at the beginning of 1778 . Over 2000 Continental Army soldiers and state militias were placed under arms for her, but she was also exhausted due to disagreements in command between Howe and Georgia Governor John Hauston. After a brief skirmish on the Alligator Bridge at the end of June, combined with tropical diseases and disagreements at the Patriots camp, East Florida remained firmly in the hands of the British.

The Loyalist Problem

In 1778, the British again turned their attention to the south, where they hoped to regain control, attracting thousands of loyalists to their side. This expected support was based on reports from emigrant loyalists in London who entered the reception of the Secretary of American Affairs, George Germain ^[5] . In an effort to reclaim their lands and receive rewards for their loyalty to the crown , these people realized that the best way to convince the British government to conduct a major operation in the South is to exaggerate the degree of support for the loyalists. This group had a great influence on ministers in London. Almost until the end of the war, the British remained in the hope that they would find substantial support for their actions if they liberated the necessary areas. While in South Carolina, Cornwallis wrote to Clinton:

Assurances of allegiance to our poor, troubled friends in North Carolina are stronger than ever.

Original text

Our assurances of attachment from our poor distressed friends in North Carolina are as strong as ever ^[6] .

For the most part, these hopes were in vain; Cornwallis began to understand this as the campaign developed.

The Taking of the Savannah

On November 26, 1778, a British expeditionary force of 3,500 men, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell, left New York on 23 ships and transports and captured Savannah in Georgia on December 29 . In mid-January 1779, Brigadier General Augustine Prevost joined him with the troops he had brought from Sant'Augustin, taking a number of outposts along the way. Prevost assumed command of the forces in Georgia, and sent Campbell, with 1,000 men, to Augusta with the goal of taking control of the city and recruiting the loyalists.

The remnants of the Savannah defenders retreated to Perrisburg, about 12 miles (19 km) up the river, where they were met by Major General Benjamin Lincoln, commander of the Continental Army in the South. He came with most of the army from Charleston, with the intention of following and opposing Prevost. In early February, Prevost sent several hundred people to occupy Beaufort. The maneuver was probably intended to distract Lincoln's attention from Campbell's movements. Lincoln responded by sending General Multry, and with him 300 men, to knock them out. The Beaufort battle was generally indecisive, and both teams eventually returned to their camps.

Meanwhile, Campbell, without much resistance, took control of Augusta, and loyalists began to appear. Although he recruited more than 1,000 people over the course of two weeks, he was powerless to prevent the defeat of a large loyalist squad incurred by a militia of patriots led by Andrew Pickens on February 14 at Kettle Creek , just 50 miles (80 km) from Augusta. It showed how incapable the British army was in protecting the loyalists. Campbell then left Augusta completely unexpectedly, apparently in response to the arrival of John Ash with more than 1,000 North Carolian militias whom Lincoln had sent to reinforce the 1,000 militias that were already across the river from Augusta, in South Carolina. On the way back to Savannah, Campbell handed over command of his people to his brother Augustine Prevost Mark. Junior Prevost turned the situation against Ashe, who was chasing him southwards, on March 3, taking him by surprise and almost destroying him 1300 people at Brier Creek .

By April, Lincoln was strengthened by a large number of South Carolina militias and received additional supplies from Dutch transports in Charleston, and decided to move to Augusta. Having left 1000 people under the command of General Multry in Perrisburg to follow Augustine Prevost, he began a campaign on April 23 to the north. In response to this step, Prevost on April 29 brought 2500 people from Savannah to Perrysburg. Multry retreated to Charleston without engaging in battle, and by May 10, Prevost approached the city 10 miles (16 km) before he began to meet resistance. Two days later, he intercepted the message that Lincoln, warned of the advance of Prevost, had rushed back from under Augusta to help Charleston. Prevost retreated to the islands southwest of Charleston, leaving a fortified guard at the Stono Ferry crossing (near present-day Rantols, South Carolina), for cover. When Lincoln returned to Charleston, he led about 1,200 people, mostly untrained militias, following Prevost. These forces were driven back by the British on June 20 at the Battle of Stono Ferry . Having completed his task, the British rearguard left the position a few days later. Prevost's outing on Charleston was marked by the outrage and robberies of his troops, which caused anger both friends and enemies on the plains of South Carolina.

Savannah Defense

In October 1779, the French and Continental armies jointly tried to return Savannah . This attempt, under the command of General Lincoln and with the help of the French squadron of Count d'Estaing , failed miserably. The combined Franco-American forces lost over 900 people, the British only 54 ^[7] . The French fleet found that the fortifications of the Savannah are similar to those that stopped Commodore Parker in Charleston in 1776. The artillery shelling had almost no effect on the defense, but unlike Charleston, where Clinton decided not to attack Fort Sullivan from land, d'Estaing insisted on an assault after the bombing from the sea failed. ^[8] In this attack, Count Casimir Pulaski , a Polish commander of the American cavalry, was mortally wounded ^[9] . Having secured Savannah, Clinton untied his hands for a new attack on Charleston, where the last time he left with nothing. Lincoln, on the other hand, transferred the surviving troops to Charleston to aid in the construction of fortifications.

Charleston Second Assault

In 1780, Clinton finally opposed Charleston. In March, he imposed a blockade on the harbor and gathered around 10,000 troops in the area. His attack on the city took place without interference. The American naval commander, Commodore Abraham Whipple, flooded five of the eight frigates in the harbor, creating a defensive barrier. In the city itself, General Lincoln had 2,650 continental soldiers and 2,500 militias. When the British Colonel Banastre Tarleton cut off the supply routes for the city in victories at Monk Corner in April and Ferry Lenod in early May, Charleston was surrounded. ^[10] On March 11, Clinton set about building siege lines and began bombing the city ^[11] .

On May 12, 1780, General Lincoln surrendered with an army of 5,000 men - the largest surrender of US troops before the Civil War . At the cost of relatively small losses, Clinton captured the large city of the South and seaport, having won, possibly the biggest British victory for the war, and destroyed the American military structure in the south of the country. It was only in 1781 , when Nathaniel Green leaked past Cornwallis after the Battle of Guildford Court House, that the British finally lost their advantage in the south.

The remnants of the southern Continental Army began to retreat to North Carolina, pursued by Colonel Tarleton, who defeated them at Voxhouse on May 29 . After the battle, rumors spread that Tarleton massacred many patriots when they surrendered. The credibility (but not the consequences) of these rumors is still disputed by historians. The name "Blood Tarleton" or "Blood Ban" became hated, and the words "Tarleton's mercy" - a hint of supposedly his behavior - soon turned into a war cry. One way or another, there was a massacre, as the rebels claimed, or not, the consequences affected throughout the campaign. When the Loyalist militia surrendered at the end of the Kings Mountain battle , many were killed as the patriots continued to shoot while shouting “Tarleton’s mercy!” Tarleton later published a war report that alleges abuse of prisoners of war and where he is portrayed himself exclusively in a good light ^[12] .

Cornwallis takes command

After Charleston, the organized military efforts of the Americans in the South fell apart. Their government, however, continued to operate, and partisans such as Francis Marion fought the war. General Clinton handed over British operations in the South to Lord Cornwallis . The Continental Congress sent General Horatio Gates , the victor at Saratoga , south with a new army, but Gates soon suffered one of the worst defeats in American military history - at the Battle of Camden on August 16, 1780 , which set the stage for the Cornwallis invasion of North Carolina. For the Americans in the south, this is a difficult moment.

However, the case quickly turned against Cornwallis. Attempts to raise large numbers of loyalists in North Carolina were effectively suppressed when the militia of the patriots on October 7, 1780 defeated the large forces of the loyalists in the battle of Kings Mountain, many of which crossed the Appalachians to fight for the British, and therefore received the nickname of "tanned" . Overmountain ). The British plans to recruit a large loyalist army did not materialize; there weren’t enough loyalists, and those that existed were threatened as soon as the British army moved on. The defeat at Kings Mountain and the continuous attacks on his communications forced Cornwallis to winter in South Carolina.

Gates was succeeded by Washington's most reliable subordinate, General Nathaniel Green . Green subjugated about 1,000 men to General Morgan, an excellent tactician who defeated Tarleton’s troops on January 17, 1781 , under Coopens . For this fight, as well as for Kings Mountain, Cornwallis was later criticized because he separated part of the army without adequate support. Green began to exhaust the enemy in a series of skirmishes and maneuvers known as the Dan River Race (probably because the river flows near the border between North Carolina and Virginia), where each clash led to a tactical victory for the British, but did not give them a strategic advantage . Cornwallis, knowing that Green had divided his forces and was trying to defeat either Morgan or Green's detachment before they could get together, ordered the army to get rid of all excess baggage in an attempt to keep up with the fast-moving Americans. When Green found out about this decision, he joyfully declared: “Then he is ours!” Subsequently, the lack of carts at Cornwallis created new difficulties for him.

General Green first tied Cornwallis to a battle at Cowens Ford , where he sent 900 people to William Lee Davidson. At the end of the battle, Davidson was killed in the river, after which the Americans retreated. Green was weakened, but continued his evasion tactics, and carried out a dozen more shootings with Cornwallis troops in North and South Carolina. About 2,000 British soldiers died in these battles. Green summed up the approach with a phrase that later became winged:

We fight, they beat us, we get up to fight again.

Original text

We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again.

In the end, Green felt strong enough to meet Cornwallis face to face near Guildford (North Carolina). Although Guildford Cort House Cornwallis tactically emerged victorious, the losses incurred forced him to retreat to Wilmington for replenishment and supply.

While Cornwallis was not able to completely destroy Green, he was aware that most of the supplies relied on by US troops went through Virginia , which until then had been relatively untouched by the war. Contrary to the wishes of Henry Clinton, Cornwallis decided to invade Virginia in the hope that by cutting the supply routes to Carolina, he would deprive the Americans of the opportunity to resist. This theory was supported by Lord Germain in a series of letters that essentially excluded Clinton from making decisions on the southern army, although nominally he was commander in chief. Without telling Clinton, Cornwallis moved north from Wilmington to Virginia, with the intention of engaging in raiding operations. There, he subsequently joined the army under the command of William Phillips and Benedict Arnold , who also engaged in raids.

When Cornwallis left Greensboro and went to Wilmington, he paved the way for Green to conquer South Carolina. What he achieved by the end of June, despite the defeat at Hill Hobkirk (2 km north of Camden), suffered on April 25 from the hand of Lord Rawdon . From May 22 to June 19, 1781, Greene led the siege of Ninety-six , which he was forced to withdraw when news arrived that Rawdon was leading troops to help the besieged. However, the actions of Green’s militia and commanders such as Francis Marion forced Rawdon to eventually abandon the defense of Ninety-Six and Camden, effectively reducing the British presence in South Carolina to Port Charleston. Augusta in Georgia was also besieged on May 22 , and on June 6 fell before the patriots Andrew Pickens and Henry of the "light cavalry" Lee , reducing the British presence in this colony to one Savannah.

Green then gave his forces six weeks of rest in the hills along the Santi River . On September 8, he attacked British troops with 2,600 men under the command of Colonel Alexander Stewart at Utah Springs . The battle, although tactically ended in a draw, weakened the British so much that they moved to Charleston, where Green locked them until the end of the war.

Yorktown

Upon arrival in Virginia, Cornwallis took command of all British forces in the region, which were first commanded by defector Benedict Arnold , and then Major General William Phillips. Phillips, a personal friend of Cornwallis, died two days before Cornwallis reached his position in Petersburg . Speaking without reporting to Clinton about his movements (the connection between the British commanders went by sea and very slowly, sometimes up to three weeks), Cornwallis now sent a dispatch about his march north and began to destroy American supplies in the Chesapeake area.

In March 1781 , in response to a threat from Arnold and Phillips, General Washington sent the Marquis de Lafayette to defend Virginia. The young Frenchman had 3200 men under his command, but the British troops numbered 7200. Lafayette clashed with Cornwallis, avoiding a decisive battle, while at the same time collecting reinforcements. It was during this period that Cornwallis received Clinton’s order to choose a position on the Virginian Peninsula - in those letters referred to as Williamsburg Neck - and create a fortified seaport suitable for battleships ^[13] . Fulfilling this order, Cornwallis chose Yorktown , than he put himself in a position that turned into a trap . With the arrival of Rear Admiral Count de Grasse's French fleet and the combined Franco-American army of Generals Washington and Rocheambo, Cornwallis was cut off.

After the British fleet, under the command of Rear Admiral Graves, was unable to lift the blockade of the French in the Chesapeake battle and thus suffered a strategic defeat, and the French siege train arrived with the squadron de Barras from Newport (Rhode Island) , it became impossible to maintain a position. On October 19, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington and the Earl of Rocheambo . He reported this disaster to Clinton in a letter that began with the words:

I regret to inform Your Excellency that I was forced to leave York and Gloucester and surrender troops under my command for surrender, this 19th month, to the combined forces of America as prisoners of war.

Original text

I have the mortification to inform Your Excellency that I have been forced to give up the posts of York and Gloucester and to surrender the troops under my command by capitulation, on the 19th instant, as prisoners of war to the combined forces of America ^{[14 ]} .

With the surrender of Yorktown, with the full participation of French troops in this campaign, and with the loss of the Cornwallis army, the British hostilities ceased on land. The only British army of any serious size that remained in America was the army of Sir Henry Clinton in New York . Clinton, paralyzed by defeat, took no further action until he was replaced by Guy Carleton in 1782 . Such a shocking turn during the war, which, moreover, took place against the backdrop of a rare defeat at sea, served to shift British public opinion against the war. The North Ministry collapsed, and in the remaining months no major operations on the American continent took place. Many historians claim that if the decline of British fortune in the American Revolutionary War began with Saratoga, then Yorktown signed her death sentence.

In general, the southern theater, despite the fact that both sides gave it little importance for a long time, turned out to be characteristic of the entire conduct of the war. Errors made by the British in it include an obscure and controversial strategic leadership from London ; poor choice and placement of commanders; submission of sea power to land considerations and, as a result, incompetent use of the capabilities of the fleet; poor interaction between the navy and the army ^[15] . At the level of individual campaigns, there is an underestimation of the enemy, a dispersal of forces, a stubborn desire to wage a land war using European tactics, intrigue and disagreement between commanders and the shortcomings of their personal leadership.

In turn, the Americans, although they did not have the strength to organize serious resistance, refused to fight on enemy terms, successfully used partisan tactics and the large size of the theater, resorted to propaganda at every opportunity, did not stop fighting after the defeats, and most importantly, created the conditions for the intervention of France which , especially its sea power, finally decided the matter. By coincidence, it was in the South, under Yorktown, that the war in the colonies actually came to an end.

• Biceno, Hugh. Rebels and Redcoats: The American Revolutionary War , London: HarperCollins, 2003.
• Dull, Jonathan. A Diplomatic History of the American Revolution . London - New Haven, Yale University Press, 1985. ISBN 0-300-03886-0
• Hibbert, C. Rebels and Redcoats: The American Revolution Through British Eyes , London: WW Norton & Co., 2002. ISBN 0-393-32293-9
• Larrabee, Harold A. Decision at the Chesapeake. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1964.
• Navies and the American Revolution, 1775-1783 / Robert Gardiner, ed. - Chatham Publishing, 1997. - ISBN 1-55750-623-X .