Rating: 
Summary: Great Historiographical Content
Review: This is a great book. It takes a new and much needed look at the Ameircan Revoultion. The South in this well written forecful tromp through the Revoltuion is given the much needed credit it deserves. Buchanan, adds to the lore and scholarship of the Revolution by illustrating the active and importnat role the South played in the American Revoulution. This book is well written and well researched.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good Introductory Revolutionary Book Has Weakness
Review: This is a very good book. It will still be a good book 50 years from now. It compares favorably with the popular book on Stonewall Jackson, but does not focus on one personality. Protrayals of Nathanial Greene, Daniel Morgan, and Andrew Pickens were extremely moving and enlightening. The Dust-Jacket protrays the Battle of the CowPens, which is described on page 326. I was glad to have this famous painting finally described to me. I would have preferred that the author had identified the "black body servant" who rescued William Washington, but perhaps he is lost in history. I was very frustrated with the pausity of maps, i.e. spatial descriptions of what the author was talking about. Most military history students think spatially. The author also seemed to feel that he could only use complex "authentic-historical maps". The maps used were virtually unreadable. Unless the reader "knows the country", the reader will lose about 20 per cent of the author's information. This is easy to correct in the second edition. This is probably an excellant book to start in reading on the "First Civil War-American Revolution". That's what I'm doing. Again, this is a very good book.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating reading
Review: This is an absolutely fascinating book. I wouldn't have been able to put it down if work, sleep, family and other interests hadn't intervened. The subtitle is a better key to the book as a whole than the actual title. Only the last few pages deal with the battle of Guilford Courthouse; the rest is a detailed look at the entire Revolutionary War in South Carolina and eventually North Carolina.
My appreciation starts with the language. Buchanan is a literate writer, often literary and occasionally poetic as he describes what in other circumstances could be very dry material. He describes the scenery, the participants, the weather in vivid, see-it-now terms.
Buchanan's wide range of sources range from memoirs and diaries to pension applications to modern histories. He clearly attributes each source, maintaining simultaneously the sense of being there and the sense of reading about the war over 200 years later.
The number of characters Buchanan brings to life is amazing. He gives background, personalities, conflicts and judgments. The reader is able to keep in view many men and battles as clearly as in any novel.
I now have a better picture of the entire Revolutionary War. Among facts I didn't know is the role of the Tory troops. Previously, I imagined a small group of rich, city folk, sitting around wanting the Brits to get on with it and eventually having to sail away and leave America behind. But in reality, most of the participants in most of the battles and skirmishes detailed here were Americans. I also did not have a clear impression of the gruesome way the battles were waged. I purchased this book to find what one of my ancestors, a militiaman from Virginia, was doing in 1781 at Guilford Courthouse. Now, I imagine I understand much better.
My only regrets are a bad index and a scarcity of maps.
Rating:
Summary: Super, Super Book!!!
Review: This is an excellent work focusing on a often over looked part of the American Revolution. The author finally does justice to the Southern Campaigns. The bibliography alone is worth the price. Along with Lumpkin's FROM SAVANNAH TO YORKTOWN this is a must have reference for any Historian.
Rating:
Summary: Superb history of the Southern Campaigns
Review: This is one of the finest books I have yet read on a series
of military operations. Buchanan is an excellent writer who
should appeal to anyone, whether they care about the Revolution or not. His story gives the lie to those who believe the revolution was a civil war, in spite of the various brawls
between Loyalist and Rebel militia in the South - the issue was
decided only by standup battles between the Continental and
British Armies and after the British stopped fighting, the
war was over. This is a book worth rereading and loaning to
any friends looking for something both enlightening and entertaining. The Revolutionary War was decided in the
South, something made patently obvious by this history.
Rating: 
Summary: A Must-Read for any Student of the Revolution
Review: This was one of the most enjoyable, and educational, books I've read on the American Revolution in a great while. Sadly, it highlights the fact that most Americans know very little outside of Valley Forge and the Battle of Bunker Hill. By covering, in-depth, the savage civil war that raged in the Carolinas the author has done us all a great service. The book is well-written, with excellent footnotes and sources listed. It is also very readable, reading at times almost like a novel. I've recommended this book to others and will continue to do so - it's an excellent read!
Rating:
Summary: A Must-Read for any Student of the Revolution
Review: This was one of the most enjoyable, and educational, books I've read on the American Revolution in a great while. Sadly, it highlights the fact that most Americans know very little outside of Valley Forge and the Battle of Bunker Hill. By covering, in-depth, the savage civil war that raged in the Carolinas the author has done us all a great service. The book is well-written, with excellent footnotes and sources listed. It is also very readable, reading at times almost like a novel. I've recommended this book to others and will continue to do so - it's an excellent read!
Rating:
Summary: Compelling.
Review: Until this book I always associated the battles of the Revolutionary War with those fought in the Northern Colonies: Quebec, Saratoga, Boston, Brooklyn, Brandywine, etc. I had certainly heard of King's Mountain and Cowpens but I had no idea of the savagery or the multiplicity of engagements fought in the Carolinas.This is a book that sets the record straight. From Sullivan's Island to Charleston, from Camden to King's Mountain and from Cowpens to Guilford Courthouse, the fidelity and the zeal of the American Rebellion burned here with an intensity second to none. In fact, the Revolutionary War in the Carolinas was more a civil war than a revolt. Brothers really fought and slew brothers. The British campaign was in reality an intense war of extermination. John Buchanan has delivered the extraordinary sacrifices made to the cause of liberty in a rousing good manner. Written with grace and style, this is an amazing contribution to the literature surrounding the American War for Independence.
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