What do you think?
Rate this book
The Road to Charleston: Nathanael Greene and the American Revolution
In The Road to Guilford Courthouse, one of the most acclaimed military histories of the Revolutionary War ever written, John Buchanan explored the first half of the critical Southern Campaign and introduced readers to its brilliant architect, Major General Nathanael Greene. In this long-awaited sequel, Buchanan brings this story to its dramatic conclusion.
Greene’s Southern Campaign was the most difficult of the war. With a supply line stretching hundreds of miles northward, it revealed much about the crucial military art of provision and transport. Insufficient manpower a constant problem, Greene attempted to incorporate black regiments into his army, a plan angrily rejected by the South Carolina legislature. A bloody civil war between Rebels and Tories was wreaking havoc on the South at the time, forcing Greene to address vigilante terror and restore civilian government. As his correspondence with Thomas Jefferson during the campaign shows, Greene was also bedeviled by the conflict between war and the rights of the people, and the question of how to set constraints under which a free society wages war.
Joining Greene is an unforgettable cast of characters—men of strong and, at times, antagonistic personalities—all of whom are vividly portrayed. We also follow the fate of Greene’s tenacious foe, Lieutenant Colonel Francis, Lord Rawdon. By the time the British evacuate Charleston—and Greene and his ragged, malaria-stricken, faithful Continental Army enter the city in triumph—the reader has witnessed in telling detail one of the most punishing campaigns of the Revolution, culminating in one of its greatest victories.
Greene’s Southern Campaign was the most difficult of the war. With a supply line stretching hundreds of miles northward, it revealed much about the crucial military art of provision and transport. Insufficient manpower a constant problem, Greene attempted to incorporate black regiments into his army, a plan angrily rejected by the South Carolina legislature. A bloody civil war between Rebels and Tories was wreaking havoc on the South at the time, forcing Greene to address vigilante terror and restore civilian government. As his correspondence with Thomas Jefferson during the campaign shows, Greene was also bedeviled by the conflict between war and the rights of the people, and the question of how to set constraints under which a free society wages war.
Joining Greene is an unforgettable cast of characters—men of strong and, at times, antagonistic personalities—all of whom are vividly portrayed. We also follow the fate of Greene’s tenacious foe, Lieutenant Colonel Francis, Lord Rawdon. By the time the British evacuate Charleston—and Greene and his ragged, malaria-stricken, faithful Continental Army enter the city in triumph—the reader has witnessed in telling detail one of the most punishing campaigns of the Revolution, culminating in one of its greatest victories.
600 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 26, 2019
29 people are currently reading
158 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 8, 2019
Story of the American Revolution in the South Could Have Been More Engaging
Count this reader among many familiar with the battles of the American Revolution in the North, but who was not familiar with the war in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia from 1778 to 1782. Author John Buchanan has written a detailed, impressively researched account of the battles — but given the colorful personalities and drama of the conflict, the author’s narrative could have been more engaging.
This is the second of two volumes by Buchanan to chronicle the “Southern Campaign,” with particular focus on the leadership of Major General Nathanael Greene and profiles of other colorful personalities such as Francis Marion (the “Swamp Fox”), Light Horse Harry Lee, Thomas Sumpter (the “Gamecock”), Col. John Laurens, and on the British side the capable Lt. Colonel Francis, Lord Rawdon.
For those who have not read his first volume (The Road to Guilford Courthouse), covering the first years of the war in the southern states, Buchanan provides a 36 page summary in this volume, so that the readers have context for the arrival of Greene at the end of 1780 to lead American resistance in the final two years of the war.
Greene’s arrival signaled that the British had shifted the conflict to the South. The British had failed to subdue the northern states but there had not been a major action in the North since the Battle of Monmouth in 1778. However in the South a Backcountry partisan campaign had foiled British pacification efforts and fighting had raged almost nonstop.
In the South, the British were successful in capturing the two major ports, Savannah and Charleston, and in dominating the low coastal country which had the great plantations and greater population density and prosperity than the interior countryside.
London assumed that as British forces moved inland, to the mountainous and relatively undeveloped region known as the Backcountry, they would be greeted by a population of Loyalists to the Crown. That assumption proved to be wrong. Backcountry people were tough, independent, and ferocious fighters when they chose to fight. But Greene was also challenged because as members of militias they were also unreliable compared to soldiers in the regular Continental army. Interior settlements were often under threat from Cherokee Indians, drawing back militia troops to defend their homes. Moreover, to sustain their families, Backcountry militiamen headed home during planting and harvest seasons.
Both sides were always short of reliable soldiers.
Challenged by insufficient manpower and a wavering Loyalist population, the British lacked the resources to supply their forces and keep open their lines of communication as they moved to the interior. Even more serious, they didn’t have sufficient strength to hold on to territory once they had won it in battle. Civilian Loyalists were demoralized when British forces came, temporarily conquered, and then left. Thus, in the major battle of Eutaw Springs in 1781 the British won a nominal victory, but shortly thereafter left the field. There was a pattern of tactical wins for the British followed by strategic loss.
Greene also struggled to recruit sufficient manpower, and the book contains two jaw-dropping revelations. In 1780 Greene’s subordinate, General Sumter, proposed giving slaves, captured from Loyalist owners, to militia men who committed to ten months service. This didn’t work, as the rough Backcountry men weren’t interested in slaves, probably because in the hardscrabble countryside where they resided a slave was just another mouth to feed. To bolster their forces, the British offered to free slaves who joined their forces and this was an effective recruiting tool. In 1781 Greene was so short of troops that he proposed matching the British offer, freeing slaves who agreed to fight on the Patriot side. That proposal was rejected by the committee that exercised civilian control over Greene’s command because the creation of numbers of free blacks trained in the use of arms was judged too dangerous to the “southern way of life."
The Americans lost more set-piece battles than they won, and Buchanan chronicles battlefield victories and defeats in detail. But overall their resistance did not falter. In a partisan war, as Greene put it in a letter, his soldiers would “fight, get beat, rise and fight again.”
What was the overall significance of these battles in the South? Surely the situation was demoralizing for the British as they fought a war of attrition with no permanent gain. Disillusionment that beset the Americans in Vietnam comes to mind. The battles of 1780 and 1781 also occurred when not much was going on in the North so the Southern campaign had to keep the cost of the war and the lack of progress top of mind for the British.
At the end of the book Buchanan emphasizes Cornwallis’ defeat at Yorktown in breaking the will of the British, which was surely the case. But oddly, as an author who has written two books on the conflict in the South, he downplays the significance of the Southern Campaign, characterizing it as a series of indecisive skirmishes.
Even as a peace treaty was being negotiated to end the war, King George III and some of his ministers gave thought to the possibility of retaining Savannah, Charleston, and New York as British outposts. I expected Buchanan to argue that American resistance in the Southern Campaign helped persuade London that it was no longer possible for Britain to conduct offensive operations into America’s interior. That would raise questions about whether it was realistic to retain a few ports when the surrounding countryside was controlled by the enemy. Might the Southern Campaign have contributed to the decision of a full British withdrawal? The absence of such analysis is a flaw in the book.
The research behind Buchanan’s book is comprehensive and impressive, but he is not a great writer. Plowing through a tremendous amount of detail, the reader too often is left on his own to place events in a larger context. The best historians use contemporary quotes sparingly to add color to the story, but Buchanan uses these in abundance and often they fail to advance the narrative. An engaging history of the American Revolution in the South perhaps will be taken up by a writer such as David McCullough, Ron Chernow, or Doris Kearns Goodwin. Buchanan’s scholarship could form the basis for telling the story in a much more engaging manner.
Count this reader among many familiar with the battles of the American Revolution in the North, but who was not familiar with the war in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia from 1778 to 1782. Author John Buchanan has written a detailed, impressively researched account of the battles — but given the colorful personalities and drama of the conflict, the author’s narrative could have been more engaging.
This is the second of two volumes by Buchanan to chronicle the “Southern Campaign,” with particular focus on the leadership of Major General Nathanael Greene and profiles of other colorful personalities such as Francis Marion (the “Swamp Fox”), Light Horse Harry Lee, Thomas Sumpter (the “Gamecock”), Col. John Laurens, and on the British side the capable Lt. Colonel Francis, Lord Rawdon.
For those who have not read his first volume (The Road to Guilford Courthouse), covering the first years of the war in the southern states, Buchanan provides a 36 page summary in this volume, so that the readers have context for the arrival of Greene at the end of 1780 to lead American resistance in the final two years of the war.
Greene’s arrival signaled that the British had shifted the conflict to the South. The British had failed to subdue the northern states but there had not been a major action in the North since the Battle of Monmouth in 1778. However in the South a Backcountry partisan campaign had foiled British pacification efforts and fighting had raged almost nonstop.
In the South, the British were successful in capturing the two major ports, Savannah and Charleston, and in dominating the low coastal country which had the great plantations and greater population density and prosperity than the interior countryside.
London assumed that as British forces moved inland, to the mountainous and relatively undeveloped region known as the Backcountry, they would be greeted by a population of Loyalists to the Crown. That assumption proved to be wrong. Backcountry people were tough, independent, and ferocious fighters when they chose to fight. But Greene was also challenged because as members of militias they were also unreliable compared to soldiers in the regular Continental army. Interior settlements were often under threat from Cherokee Indians, drawing back militia troops to defend their homes. Moreover, to sustain their families, Backcountry militiamen headed home during planting and harvest seasons.
Both sides were always short of reliable soldiers.
Challenged by insufficient manpower and a wavering Loyalist population, the British lacked the resources to supply their forces and keep open their lines of communication as they moved to the interior. Even more serious, they didn’t have sufficient strength to hold on to territory once they had won it in battle. Civilian Loyalists were demoralized when British forces came, temporarily conquered, and then left. Thus, in the major battle of Eutaw Springs in 1781 the British won a nominal victory, but shortly thereafter left the field. There was a pattern of tactical wins for the British followed by strategic loss.
Greene also struggled to recruit sufficient manpower, and the book contains two jaw-dropping revelations. In 1780 Greene’s subordinate, General Sumter, proposed giving slaves, captured from Loyalist owners, to militia men who committed to ten months service. This didn’t work, as the rough Backcountry men weren’t interested in slaves, probably because in the hardscrabble countryside where they resided a slave was just another mouth to feed. To bolster their forces, the British offered to free slaves who joined their forces and this was an effective recruiting tool. In 1781 Greene was so short of troops that he proposed matching the British offer, freeing slaves who agreed to fight on the Patriot side. That proposal was rejected by the committee that exercised civilian control over Greene’s command because the creation of numbers of free blacks trained in the use of arms was judged too dangerous to the “southern way of life."
The Americans lost more set-piece battles than they won, and Buchanan chronicles battlefield victories and defeats in detail. But overall their resistance did not falter. In a partisan war, as Greene put it in a letter, his soldiers would “fight, get beat, rise and fight again.”
What was the overall significance of these battles in the South? Surely the situation was demoralizing for the British as they fought a war of attrition with no permanent gain. Disillusionment that beset the Americans in Vietnam comes to mind. The battles of 1780 and 1781 also occurred when not much was going on in the North so the Southern campaign had to keep the cost of the war and the lack of progress top of mind for the British.
At the end of the book Buchanan emphasizes Cornwallis’ defeat at Yorktown in breaking the will of the British, which was surely the case. But oddly, as an author who has written two books on the conflict in the South, he downplays the significance of the Southern Campaign, characterizing it as a series of indecisive skirmishes.
Even as a peace treaty was being negotiated to end the war, King George III and some of his ministers gave thought to the possibility of retaining Savannah, Charleston, and New York as British outposts. I expected Buchanan to argue that American resistance in the Southern Campaign helped persuade London that it was no longer possible for Britain to conduct offensive operations into America’s interior. That would raise questions about whether it was realistic to retain a few ports when the surrounding countryside was controlled by the enemy. Might the Southern Campaign have contributed to the decision of a full British withdrawal? The absence of such analysis is a flaw in the book.
The research behind Buchanan’s book is comprehensive and impressive, but he is not a great writer. Plowing through a tremendous amount of detail, the reader too often is left on his own to place events in a larger context. The best historians use contemporary quotes sparingly to add color to the story, but Buchanan uses these in abundance and often they fail to advance the narrative. An engaging history of the American Revolution in the South perhaps will be taken up by a writer such as David McCullough, Ron Chernow, or Doris Kearns Goodwin. Buchanan’s scholarship could form the basis for telling the story in a much more engaging manner.
April 22, 2019
I just finished reading Jack Buchanan's outstanding new book, The Road to Charleston: Nathanael Greene and the American Revolution. This history is a sequel to Jack's earlier work, The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas.
Although I have read a fair number of books about the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution, there are those far more knowledgeable about the subject than I am. So, I am reluctant to make broad pronouncements on the topic, much less describe anything as "definitive", especially when it comes to the Southern Campaign, where passions, prejudices, and jealousies remain strong (and where, quite honestly, a sizeable chip remains on people's shoulders as a result of a belief -- not unfounded -- that the Southern Campaign has been given short shrift compared to the more widely-known action to the north).
That said, if there is a more "definitive" treatment of the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution than what appears in Jack Buchanan's two books on the topic -- The Road to Guilford Courthouse and The Road to Charleston, then I have yet to read it.
5-plus stars!
Although I have read a fair number of books about the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution, there are those far more knowledgeable about the subject than I am. So, I am reluctant to make broad pronouncements on the topic, much less describe anything as "definitive", especially when it comes to the Southern Campaign, where passions, prejudices, and jealousies remain strong (and where, quite honestly, a sizeable chip remains on people's shoulders as a result of a belief -- not unfounded -- that the Southern Campaign has been given short shrift compared to the more widely-known action to the north).
That said, if there is a more "definitive" treatment of the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution than what appears in Jack Buchanan's two books on the topic -- The Road to Guilford Courthouse and The Road to Charleston, then I have yet to read it.
5-plus stars!
April 19, 2020
It is often a surprise to people that there was a significant campaign of the Revolutionary War in the Carolinas and Georgia. When I first started reading about the war I, like most people, thought there was New York, Philadelphia and Yorktown. The author corrects that misconception resoundingly with two of the best works I’ve read yet on the war; The Road to Guilford Courthouse and this book.
Throughout the two volumes we get to know a truly great American soldier; Nathanael Greene. This campaign, even though Greene didn’t win a single major battle, was a tribute to a man of unimaginable creativity and strength of character. The war was not necessarily won in South Carolina but it could easily have been lost there. Greene prevented that from happening.
Buchanan’s story telling is exquisite. He relates the story in a conversational manner and provides nice background vignettes to help you understand the personalities, politics and setting of the action. You will come away with a far greater appreciation of the unbelievable sacrifices made by the Patriots of the era. A must read for anyone interested in gaining a more complete understanding of our nation’s birth.
Throughout the two volumes we get to know a truly great American soldier; Nathanael Greene. This campaign, even though Greene didn’t win a single major battle, was a tribute to a man of unimaginable creativity and strength of character. The war was not necessarily won in South Carolina but it could easily have been lost there. Greene prevented that from happening.
Buchanan’s story telling is exquisite. He relates the story in a conversational manner and provides nice background vignettes to help you understand the personalities, politics and setting of the action. You will come away with a far greater appreciation of the unbelievable sacrifices made by the Patriots of the era. A must read for anyone interested in gaining a more complete understanding of our nation’s birth.
February 8, 2023
An excellent follow-up to his truly outstanding Road to Guilford Courthouse, Buchanan presents a narrative history that is both scholarly and a pleasure to read--not an easy task. He is not reluctant to express his opinions and they are sprinkled liberally throughout the text. Some readers may be put off by that, and informed readers will not always agree with them, but I enjoyed reading them and appreciate that he does not attempt to disguise them as facts. There are some unfortunate editorial decisions (imo) and a few instances of copy editor failure. But in light of the overall quality of the book those are minor quibbles. An excellent book and an important contribution to the history of the Southern theater.
July 9, 2019
I never realized that Nathaniel Greene rarely won revolutionary war battles, but still managed to beat the British on the strategic level. His ability to keep the southern army intact against all odds (especially his bickering and temperamental officer corps) and keep pressure on the his powerful opponents was very impressive. It really was a miracle that we won independence!
February 23, 2021
Excellent, candid, and detailed account of General Nathanael Greene's politic and military campaign in the south.
February 8, 2023
A decent reference book for the second half of the Southern Theater but truly drags as a narrative, especially compared to the first volume.
December 22, 2023
Wonderfull follow-up to the Guilford Courthouse title. A must read for any American Revolution enthusiast as so much of the war was fought in the Southern part of the colonies.
July 30, 2024
Back in the day I read "The Road to Guilford Courthouse" with some enthusiasm but this further examination of the military career of General Nathaniel Greene I have to find problematic on a number of points.
For one, I suspect that Buchanan would have been happier writing a more conventional "great man" type of history, but this was not a conventional war and I suspect that Buchanan realizes this and tries to engage with matters of race and atrocity with varying degrees of success. It also doesn't help that this work feels remarkably ponderous for being relatively short, and positively stuffed with personal anecdote, as Buchanan spends much of his word count giving you a blow by blow of Greene's command relationships; particularly the prickly and difficult Thomas Sumter.
The thought that comes to mind is that Buchanan really needed to set himself a historical problem to answer, as this would have given this monograph more of a backbone than one damn thing after another. Also, rather than rehashing his previous work, perhaps Buchanan would have been better off considering how political and social conflict in the Carolinas prior to the revolution conditioned the two-way civil war that happened in the southern colonies. I suppose that's another way of saying that it turns out Nathaniel Greene was, perhaps, not the best focus by which to tell this story.
Originally written: May 20, 2020.
For one, I suspect that Buchanan would have been happier writing a more conventional "great man" type of history, but this was not a conventional war and I suspect that Buchanan realizes this and tries to engage with matters of race and atrocity with varying degrees of success. It also doesn't help that this work feels remarkably ponderous for being relatively short, and positively stuffed with personal anecdote, as Buchanan spends much of his word count giving you a blow by blow of Greene's command relationships; particularly the prickly and difficult Thomas Sumter.
The thought that comes to mind is that Buchanan really needed to set himself a historical problem to answer, as this would have given this monograph more of a backbone than one damn thing after another. Also, rather than rehashing his previous work, perhaps Buchanan would have been better off considering how political and social conflict in the Carolinas prior to the revolution conditioned the two-way civil war that happened in the southern colonies. I suppose that's another way of saying that it turns out Nathaniel Greene was, perhaps, not the best focus by which to tell this story.
Originally written: May 20, 2020.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews