The War in the South After 1778 there was no more decisive fighting in the North. The British plan was to hold New York and keep there a threatening force, but to make the South henceforth the central arena of the war. Accordingly, in 1779, they evacuated Rhode Island and left the magnificent harbor of…
All posts tagged October 7
Washington and His Comrades: Chapter VI
The First Great British Disaster John Burgoyne, in a measure a soldier of fortune, was the younger son of an impoverished baronet, but he had married the daughter of the powerful Earl of Derby and was well known in London society as a man of fashion and also as a man of letters, whose plays…
King’s Mountain
Our fortress is the good greenwood, Our tent the cypress tree; We know the forest round us As seamen know the sea. We know its walls of thorny vines, Its glades of reedy grass, Its safe and silent islands Within the dark morass. –Bryant. The close of the year 1780 was, in the Southern States,…
Celebration of Burgoyne’s Surrender
From Diary of the American Revolution, Vol II. Compiled by Frank Moore and published in 1859. October 18.—Yesterday the anniversary of the surrender of General Burgoyne’s army was celebrated at Peekskill, in New York, by the officers of the Third Massachusetts brigade, in a manner which would have given satisfaction to any gentlemen who are…
The Actions at the South
From Diary of the American Revolution, Vol II. Compiled by Frank Moore and published in 1859. December 5.—A letter of this date from Charlotte, in North Carolina, says:—”Although some pains have been taken to asperse the militia of this, as well as our sister States, on account of what happened on the memorable 16th and…