March to Independence: The Revolutionary War in the Southern Colonies, 1775–1776

by Michael Cecere

The American Revolutionary War began when Massachusetts militiamen and British troops clashed at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Two months later, a much larger engagement occurred at Bunker Hill in Boston. The conflict then expanded into a continent-wide war for independence from Great Britain. Or so we are taught. A closer look at events in the South in the eighteen months following Lexington and Concord tells different story. The practice of teaching the Revolutionary War as one generalized conflict between the American colonies and Great Britain assumes the South’s support for the Revolutionary War was a foregone conclusion. However, once shots were fired, it was not certain that the southern colonies would support the independence movement. What is clear is that both the fledgling American republic and the British knew that the southern colonies were critical to any successful prosecution of the war by either side.
In  March to The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies, 1775–1776 , historian Michael Cecere, consulting primary source documents, examines how Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia ended up supporting the colonies to the north, while East Florida remained within the British sphere. South Carolina, Georgia, and East Florida all retained their royal governors through the summer of 1775, and no military engagements occurred in any of the southern colonies in the six months following the battles in Massachusetts. The situation changed significantly in the fall, however, with armed clashes in Virginia and South Carolina; by early 1776 the war had spread to all of the southern colonies except East Florida. Although their march to independence did not follow the exact route as the colonies to the north, events in the South pulled the southern colonists in the same direction, culminating with a united Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. This book explores the crucial events in the southern colonies that led all but East Florida to support the American cause.
 

248 pages, Hardcover

Published November 12, 2021

Reviews

[Rory Bogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave interesting accounts of thoughts and sentiment in the southern colonies leading to The Revolution. It is laid out thoughtfully considering each of the passing seasons and the events occurring in them throughout each southern colony. The book doesn’t go into detail following the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but gives good accounts leading up to it.

[Joseph Ficklen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book delivered information on exactly what it said at exactly the amount of detail I expected it to, focusing mainly on the political and military aspects of the early Revolution in the southern colonies. It presented the perspectives and goals of both sides of the conflict, from the scheming exiled royal governors bobbing in ships offshore to the revolutionary committees of safety. Presented fairly both British mismanagement and American brutality and ruthlessness towards Tories and slaves. Highly recommended, can’t wait for Cecere’s next book on the Revolution in the Mid-Atlantic colonies.

On my 2nd read-through:

This is a short but potent book, well worth reading several times and taking notes on. The Southern Theater 1775-76 was small, but by no means a side-show. It is interesting to note that the only place where armed Tory resistance to the Whigs emerged was in the colonies south of the Potomac River. Dunmore’s counter-insurgency in Virginia was no farce, just imagine what could have happened if he had received support from regular troops? Likewise the Highlanders defeated at Moore’s Creek Bridge, what if they had been joined by Cornwallis and Clinton? Georgia’s loyalty to the cause was by no means assured. The southern theater of the AmRev did not begin in 1780, it was a vital theater of the conflict from the beginning.