Friday's Children
Here lately I've turned into a Revolutionary War Buff. I speak of the American Revolution, sometimes foreigners read this. I recently read a book on Cowpens that I've been meaning to read for a time. A very good book that breaks it down by experiences of those that were there and time and space. Time and space are everything in combat. A man being shot at has a very small world.
In reading this I became more enthralled with the war. Most Americans have a comic book sort of understanding of the conflict. To a point I did, myself. Our Nation spawned from violence. From the point of the first Englishmen setting foot on the shores on through the Revolution. A smaller, poorly equipped Army of amateurs managed to wear down and defeat a larger well equipped, highly professional Army with a great amount of resources at it's disposal. During the Revolution, more Americans served in the British Army than were in the Continental Army. "Nothing but bloody animals, Friday's Children..." Out numbered and out equipped. Often fleeing from the Fusiliers bayonets.
(That was from the 1985 film "Revolution". A good, well made movie without heroes that didn't do so well.)
Then on the other hand how did a highly disciplined fighting force, state of the art for the time, such as the British Army find it's self conceding to the Colonies that it sought so hard to control. It had a great amount of resources at it's disposal, both through out the empire and on portions of the Continent that it did control. It had a powerful and vast Navy to back it, bring reinforcements and supplies. yet, it conceded to a fledgling Nation of former Colonies that hardly had a plug nickel to it's name.
It fascinates me.
The Appalachianist
In reading this I became more enthralled with the war. Most Americans have a comic book sort of understanding of the conflict. To a point I did, myself. Our Nation spawned from violence. From the point of the first Englishmen setting foot on the shores on through the Revolution. A smaller, poorly equipped Army of amateurs managed to wear down and defeat a larger well equipped, highly professional Army with a great amount of resources at it's disposal. During the Revolution, more Americans served in the British Army than were in the Continental Army. "Nothing but bloody animals, Friday's Children..." Out numbered and out equipped. Often fleeing from the Fusiliers bayonets.
(That was from the 1985 film "Revolution". A good, well made movie without heroes that didn't do so well.)
Then on the other hand how did a highly disciplined fighting force, state of the art for the time, such as the British Army find it's self conceding to the Colonies that it sought so hard to control. It had a great amount of resources at it's disposal, both through out the empire and on portions of the Continent that it did control. It had a powerful and vast Navy to back it, bring reinforcements and supplies. yet, it conceded to a fledgling Nation of former Colonies that hardly had a plug nickel to it's name.
It fascinates me.
The Appalachianist
Labels: American Revolution
posted by Hill Billy Rave | Sunday, May 02, 2010
7 Comments:
You know, geography probably influenced our understanding of the war--by the time I was twelve, I could probably tell what happened at every major battle in the Civil War and only a few in the Revolution--I expect if i'd been born in New England, it would have been different.
Wasn't Cowpens where all you mountain folk came down for a fight.
Sage, it was Kings Mountain and Cowpens. The Tennessee Men, didn't participate in Cowpens. This part of NC was unsettled at that time.
The Kings Mountain men, entirely Militia, was from Tennessee, the NC foothills, SC Back country and some men from Georgia.
Babits, who wrote "A Devil of A Whipping" stated the Southern Campaign of the Revolution was underestimated.
Babits is a Professor at East Carolina.
There is a lot of truth to the fact that the North got more credit than it may have deserved. . . New England controlled the press then and possibly even now. Cowpens was important as was the southern campaign in general. Bill
Bill, it's true, the Southern Campaign doesn't get it's due. I think that is on part of the fighting starting there and so much happening in the North. In 1780 it was dark and gloomy for us, then events in the South began to turn and eventually led to Yorktown. It's more complex than we want to think of it as.
My people are from Winnsboro and old inland town mentioned in the Mel Gibson movie "The Patriot." It is a town not too distant from Camden scene of a disasterous previous battle for the colonials. Winnsboro is located in Fairfied County named by Lord Cornwalis. It was fair until nearly a century or more of row cropping cotton ruined it. It has become full of pine trees and crows. Cornwallis spent a winter there, I believe, in 1780. The house in which he stayed, his campaign headquarters, still stands and is occupied even now. It was put on sale a year or two ago. Cowpens turned Cornwallis north as did the loss at King's Mountain and to his ultimate entrapment at Yorktown. I am doing this off the top of my head somewhat early in the morning off the top of my head (See what I mean.). Check the information. I think it is mostly correct. Bill
Recently read the book myself. His books are not easy to find but for an interesting and well researched set of books (some about the French and Indiah War and some about the war of 1812, but most about the Revolution check out books by Kenneth Roberts. OLIVER WISWELL is one of the few books that looks at the Revolution from the tory point of view. A lot of fascinating material, fiction but very well researched.
Sorry for my preoccupation and not getting back to you.
Bill, off the top of your head is right. However, going more in depth, to understand more than there was a fight and the other side lost, we have to understand the strategic situation and what was intended.
You mean the house is still there?! Wow.
3&10, good to see you. Interesting. You don't find much of the Tory point of view in print. People did what they did for reasons. That's one question I ask.
Personally, I had Ancestors on both sides, through my Cherokee blood.
One thing in A Devil Of A Whipping about years later the children of two participants on either side at Cowpens married in Tennessee.
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