Image courtesy Penguin Random House
When we think of the Revolutionary War, it’s often in flickering, remembered images of flags, slogans and big paintings of men in wigs. But in Richmond, writer Alan Pell Crawford’s latest history, “This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America’s Revolutionary War in the South,” describes both the brutality of the conflict and the astounding perseverance of those who stayed in the fight.
Most readers will recognize some of the figures by name, but probably not their engaging backstories. Several of them are rough-and-ready types, a few of them are even disagreeable — and they were on our side. Yet, when fighting the British Empire in the swamps and backcountry of the Carolinas, Georgia and Virginia, where the environmental elements are often as dangerous as weaponry, these figures were needed. The story brims with characters — who really lived and died for their cause — that are by turns admirable and despicable.
“That was one of the fun things about getting into all this,” Crawford says, “finding out about these people.” One familiar personage, George Washington, is largely offstage, locked up in New York or New Jersey confronted by thousands of British troops.
Author and journalist Alan Pell Crawford (Photo by Louise Keeton)
“Meanwhile, important events are happening in the South, and he can’t go there,” Crawford says. Instead, as a genius of delegating and judging character, Washington appoints resourceful leaders including Gen. Nathanael Greene. He resorts to innovative partisan tactics and the command of men such as Francis “The Swamp Fox” Marion, Winchester resident and innovative warrior Daniel Morgan, and the genuinely heroic Otho Williams.
“Washington doesn’t know the strength or disposition of the British force in the South,” Crawford says. “Greene is there and knows what’s happening, and so he tells him to get it done in whatever way that works. ... It’s a continual decentralization of authority.”
As abstract an idea as that may sound, it’s a motivation that leads people to shed blood for the cause.
“This Fierce People” shows, too, that the fissures in our national character were present at the establishment. The lives of the enslaved are caught up in the maelstrom; some fight for one side or the other, ostensibly for their freedom, others use the circumstances as an opportunity to escape. James Armistead, enslaved by a New Kent County farmer, served as a spy for the young French nobleman and general the Marquis de Lafayette in the headquarters of British Gen. Charles Cornwallis.
The American Revolution, to some in the British Parliament who eventually ceased their support of combating it, constituted a minor engagement in a vast empire beset by difficulties. Edmund Burke considered the war a distraction, and it is his epigram that provides the book’s apt title. “Burke turns out to have been right about almost everything,” Crawford muses. “He’s saying, ‘Make them trading partners and let’s get on with more important things.’” King George III, however, remained intransigent.
Scarcely remembered battles, Fishdam Ford, Hobkirk’s Hill (aka the “Second Camden”) and Eutaw Springs, were nonetheless significant and often bloody steps toward victory. It didn’t all end at Yorktown, either.
Washington described the humbling of the British army as “an interesting event,” but understood that the mission wasn’t accomplished. Those fierce people continued fighting, against the British — and each other.
“This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America’s Revolutionary War in the South” is available now. Crawford will discuss the book at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture at noon on Aug. 22. In-person tickets are $10, and there is a free streaming option.
