History of the American Revolution
The Battle of Hammond’s Store, American victory, December 30, 1780 (some sources give Nov. 29th), was one of the more brutal and savage encounters of the war. Tory loyalists, mainly from Georgia, were raiding patriot settlements in South Carolina when Continental dragoons with mounted militia, under the commanded of Colonel William Washington, pursued and attacked. …
The Battle of Wahab’s Plantation (September 21, 1780) pitted a fast moving, aggressive rebel leader, Colonel William Richardson, against the British Legion’s Cavalry. Outnumbered three to one, the newly promoted militia leader was undaunted by the odds, ordering the early morning surprise attack that took the partisan cavalrymen by surprise. Swift and brutal, the tables …
The Battle of Charlotte (September 26, 1780) deservedly marked its place in the annuals of the American Revolution. A small rebel militia, led by able-bodied commander, Colonel William Richardson Davie, defiantly stood firm and faced British General Lord Charles Cornwallis’ army, sixteen times greater than their number. After fending off three assaults and driving the …
My Lord Hook was shot from his horse –James Collins sixteen-year-old rebel militiaman July 12, 1780, Huck’s Defeat, or the Battle of Williamson’s Plantation, was a vengeful sudden strike by patriot backcountry militiamen against a strong, well-trained foe. Though small in scale by comparison, it was considered a gamechanger for patriot militia. It was the …
The Battle of Lenud’s Ferry, South Carolina, May 6, 1780, also known as Lanneau’s Ferry, was a sounding patriot loss and further blow to American cavalry in the south. It was a continuation of the sudden and vicious attacks on patriot dragoons and militia by Banastre Tarleton’s Loyalist Legion of Dragoons and Mounted Infantry. At …
On April 14, 1780, at 3 AM, Banastre Tarleton’s Partisan Legion, a loyalist mixture of dragoons and mounted infantry, thundered out of the dead of the night in a terrifying charge. Sabers slashed downward on startled Americans torn from their sleep. The surprise attack on mainly patriot light dragoons, both Continental troopers and South Carolina …
To call the fight there a battle would lend it a formality it did not possess. It was a clash of two armed mobs. Toward the end the fighting resembled an old-fashioned Pier 6 brawl between longshoremen and strikebreakers. Historian/Author John Buchanan The Battle of Ramsour’s Mill, also spelt Ramseur, and Ramsaur, for Derick Ramsaur, …
February 24, 1781. Lt. Col. Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee, Virginia patriot leader of cavalry and light infantry, rode before four hundred North Carolina loyalists. The militia, eager to join British Lt. General Charles Cornwallis’ army, had lined up for review. With Lee’s cavalry by his side, the Continental Army commander was enthusiastically greeted by …
September 8, 1781 and the Battle of Eutaw Springs destroyed any hope England had of reclaiming the southern colonies. But sixteen months earlier, that was nowhere near the case. American General Benjamin Lincoln had just surrendered the southern army at Charleston to British General Henry Clinton on May 12, 1780. The devastating loss of over …
Revolutonary War Journal is published by Harry Schenawolf, author of the Shades of Liberty Series about African American soldiers in the American Revolution. John Redman was no different than any other farmer who enlisted in the Continental Army. He was among thousands who fought for what he believed in. For over three years, he and others of …