For God, Family and Republic

Partisans and Redcoats: The Southern Conflict That Turned the Tide of the American Revolution is a succinct and readable narrative history of the American War for Independence with a focus on the Carolinas and the Southern theater—with a particular focus on the Carolina backcountry. The cast of characters includes patriots like Martha Bratton, Horatio Gates, Joseph Kershaw, and Francis Marion. "The American Revolution was won in the South by determined backcountry patriots," notes Edgar. "Some, such as Andrew Pickens and Thomas Sumter, became American folk heroes." I really like Edgar's book, because it is short and sweet. The body of the text is just one-hundred and forty-five pages. What makes this succinct book so remarkable is that Edgar tells the story and puts you in the shoes of the backcountry frontiersmen. The backdrop he paints of colonial South Carolina prior to the war shows how fragile civilization and civil society was on the frontier. He astutely explains the rigors of frontier life in the Carolina backcountry. He captures the essence of the tempestuous and rugged individualism of the Scotch-Irish settlers which were predominant in the region. Edgar tells of the sectarian animosities and strife that ensued. In one case, the tale of feuding Ulster Scot Presbyterians and Anglicans was rather humorous.** Law and order was hard to come by on the frontier, and criminal gangs of thieves and extortionists were rampant. Blood feuds and social strife ensued as a general rule. This gave rise to vigilante and posse groups like the Regulators who were eventually deputized. Eventually, the forces of ordered liberty quelled the forces of anarchy. The vigalante groups after some abuses were obliged to check one another at the behest of the State legislature. Former elements of such groups like the Regulators and Moderators provided foot soldiers, scouts, and frontiersmen to field the Continental Army and the State Militia during the war.

British policy was coldly deliberate in its policy of total war. Though total war was typically only felt in areas of entrenched, stubborn resistance: the South Carolina backcountry was such a place. "In a Civil War, there is no admitting of neutral characteristics, and... those who are not clearly with us must so far be considered against us," noted British Commander Lord Cornwallis. Edgar catches the drama in his narrative history of families being torn apart and communities being torn asunder amidst reprisals and counter-reprisals. Partisans and Redcoats captures the sacrifices of patriots, the costliness of war, and the devastation it wrings out on civil society. Not surprisingly, the heat of the war gave rise to lawlessness, and Edgar tells some tales of home invasions and plunder. The peasant rabble of the South Carolina backcountry, so deplored by the Tory gentry actually gave the British one heck of a fight. The partisans were greatly underestimated and dismissed as boorish incompetents incapable of waging civilised war. Through, the two-pronged efforts of regular militia and guerilla insurgents, the South Carolinian patriots walloped the British. Their contribution played no small role in the final victory of the American cause. For this reason, battles like Cowpens, King's Mountain and Guilford Courthouse deserve as much consideration as Saratoga, Monmouth, and Yorktown. George Washington's northern armies played cat and mouse games with the British, and seemed destined to lose, but managed to stay afloat. The southern campaign tied down British troops, ate at their morale, depleted their manpower, and paved the way for the climatic victories in Yorktown. The southern contribution in my opinion is sometimes downplayed, ignored, and marginalized. Nonetheless, studying the war for independence in perspective makes one realize that the fraternal bonds of the various regions from New England to Georgia was vitally requisite to the overall success of the cause. The combined efforts of patriots in the thirteen States worked to break the yolk of Tory tyranny. The underdog Continental Army and a ragtag colonial militia defeated of one of the greatest powers of the eighteenth-century-the British Empire.

All things considered, Walter Edgar's book is a real treat. It is easy to read, straightforward, and it packs a punch despite its brevity. Edgar's manuscript captures the fierceness of the conflict in the Carolina backcountry and the breadth of sacrifices made on all sides. The War for American Independence was a hard fought contest. The odds were greatly against the rabble rebel armies of America taking on the might of the British Empire. Providence ordained otherwise and defied those odds. During the American War for Independence, many were content to sit on sidelines whether it was the coastal city slickers from Charleston to Boston had little resolve to fight British even if they had secessionist sympathies. Yet many clergy rallied behind the cause. The conflict was in fact dubbed a "Presbyterian Parson's Rebellion" by Tories in England and loyalists here at home. The predominantly Scotch-Irish population of the Carolina backcountry didn't like dishonored covenants between the governors and the governed, and frankly they didn't much care for the English either. They were hearty frontiersmen who hacked it out of the wilderness, bearing their children along the way. Their tempestuous antagonism against the English played no small part in the fervor that brought the cause for American Independence to fruition. In the end, their love of liberty and their hatred of tyranny compelled them to break the yolk of Tory tyranny.

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**Here is an excerpt, which I found particularly funny about Presbyterian-Anglican relations in the backcountry of South Carolina in the mid-eighteenth century. It is told from the perspective a missionary of English pedigree who was sent to one of the token Anglican parishes in the Carolina backcountry. I found this story rather amusing... Anyway, jump ahead to page nine if you want to get to the gist of the story. FYI The quotations are the words of Rev. Woodmason, an Anglican clergyman.

[p. 5]
The Scots-Irish were proud of their heritage. They were, first of all, Scots. They knew their nation's d history and its mistreatment by the English. They were fervent Presbyterians whose forebears had been persecuted for their beliefs. They were family men and women and tended to stick close by their kinfolks.

...
[p. 7]
"The People," wrote Reverend Woodmason, "all new Settlers, extremely poor-Live in Logg Cabbins like Hogs-and their Living and Behavior as rude or more so than the savages."
...
[p. 9-10]
It would not be unfair to say that the backcountry was close to being a state of nature. There were settlements, but the only social organization was the church. Woodmason was an Anglican missionary to the backcountry settlements, but there were only two Anglican congregations beyond Parish End. There were several Quaker meetings... but most were Baptists or Presbyterians.
...
Sectarian animosities were fierce. Scotch-Irish Presbyterians were fervently devoted to their churches and just as fervently antagonistic to those who did not share their particular beliefs. They were the bane of Woodmason's existence and harassed him and any who attended his services. In one location, "[a] Presbyterian fellow carried off the Key to the Meeting House" so that services could not be held indoors. At Hanging Rock Creek, Woodmason was roughed up by "lawless Ruffians" who been hired by "debauch'd licentious fellows, and Scots Presbyterians." When the Anglican missionary persisted in holding a service, "a Gang of Presbyterians" interrupted it by "hallooing and whooping... like Indians." In the High Hills of the Santee, some Presbyterians "hir'd a Band of Rude fellows to come to Service who brought with them fifty-seven dogs (for I counted them) which in Time of Service they set to fighting, and I was obliged to stop." A little later, Woodmason took a dog to the home of the area's leaders and informed him "fifty-seven Presbyterians came that Day to Service, and that I had converted one of them, and brought Him home." He was fortunate to have been able to live to tell such a story.

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