This Fierce People
The Untold Story of America's Revolutionary War in the South
(amazon)Alan Pell Crawford (View Bio)
Hardcover: Alfred A. Knopf, 2024.
A groundbreaking, important recovery of history: the overlooked story—fully explored—of the critical aspect of America’s Revolutionary War that was fought in the South, showing that the British surrender at Yorktown was the direct result of the southern campaign, and that the battles that emerged south of the Mason-Dixon line between loyalists to the Crown and patriots who fought for independence were, in fact, America’s first civil war.
The famous battles that form the backbone of the story put forth of American independence—at Lexington and Concord, Brandywine, Germantown, Saratoga, and Monmouth—while crucial, did not lead to the surrender at Yorktown.
It was in the three-plus years between Monmouth and Yorktown that the war was won.
Alan Pell Crawford’s riveting new book,This Fierce People, tells the story of these missing three years, long ignored by historians, and of the fierce battles fought in the South that made up the central theater of military operations in the latter years of the Revolutionary War, upending the essential American myth that the War of Independence was fought primarily in the North.
Weaving throughout the stories of the heroic men and women, largely unsung patriots—African Americans and whites, militiamen and “irregulars,” patriots and Tories, Americans, Frenchmen, Brits, and Hessians, Crawford reveals the misperceptions and contradictions of our accepted understanding of how our nation came to be, as well as the national narrative that America’s victory over the British lay solely with General George Washington and his troops.
"The $50,000 American Battlefield Trust Prize for History has been awarded to historian Alan Pell Crawford for This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America’s Revolutionary War in the South, a timely work that humanizes stories amid that conflict’s 250th anniversary. The Prize is awarded annually to a work of military history or biography that underscores the irreplaceable perspective and primary research value of preserving the battlefields of the conflicts that forged our nation, which we continue to learn from today. ‘It is hard to imagine a work of historical research more aligned with the Trust mission,’ said Trust President David Duncan. ‘The Revolutionary War battlefields across the Carolinas and Georgia showcase incredibly powerful and compelling stories and represent some of our greatest successes in the ongoing preservation and interpretation related to our fight for independence.’ In accepting the prize, Crawford said, ‘This recognition from the American Battlefield Trust amid the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War is a tremendous honor. The battlefields of the Southern Campaigns are powerful places where both scholars and the rest of us can draw profound insights into our common history, and it is a privilege to have played some part in telling those stories.’" — American Battlefield Trust, 2025 Prize for History (Read the full review)
"Mr. Crawford’s account is incisively and carefully written, splendidly paced, and supported by a mine of primary and secondary sources. This Fierce People is military history in an older tradition, in which the outcomes of great conflicts depend on the foresight, character and courage of individual men. Yet Mr. Crawford, a journalist and historian based in Richmond, Va., doesn’t ignore the role of slavery in the ferocity of southern resistance.... Rivetingly related." — Barton Swaim, The Wall Street Journal (Read the full review)
"Independence Day is a good day to consider how our independence was won. If you’re looking for a fresh read on that, I’ve just finished reading Alan Pell Crawford’s new book, This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America’s Revolutionary War in the South.... Crawford provides a vivid, page-turning account of those events, rich in memorable characters and dramatic scenes.... Crawford, the author of books such as the aging-Jefferson study Twilight at Monticello, aims to revive the story of the war in the South. As he notes in his introduction, the Civil War and the role of slavery in the South had a good deal to do with why commemoration of these battles and campaigns did not keep pace with those in the North.... We witness the breathtaking bravery and endurance of hardship that characterized amateur soldiers and self-taught officers surviving bayonet charges, forced marches in the snow and blazing heat, wounds dressed without modern medicine, and all manner of untreatable diseases." — Dan McLaughlin, National Review (Read the full review)
"Crawford’s demystifying narrative rests upon a foundation of extensive research and is rendered in sparkling prose, with plenty of vividly drawn profiles of formidable figures caught in the vortex of big, fraught, bloody events.... Crawford is right about the Revolutionary War in the South. It was decisive in bringing the American war effort to a successful conclusion, and it probably hasn’t received the attention in history that it deserves. This book is a tidy corrective to that, and one likely to enliven as well as enlighten most readers. Beyond that, Crawford’s narrative makes it easy to see how this American adventure, full of hardship and glory, was the start of something big." — Robert W. Merry, Modern Age Journal
"A vivid re-creation of the Revolutionary War in the American South, a guerrilla-style conflict that paved the way for the British surrender at Yorktown. In this intriguing work of military and social history, Crawford argues convincingly that the South was where 'the most decisive battles…were fought.' The author mines the historical record to show that the Southern conflict was an exceedingly violent version of a guerrilla war, one that pitted loyalists against revolutionaries at every level of Southern society. Gen. Nathanael Greene, taking command of the American side after some near-catastrophic losses, understood 'that he had stepped into what a later generation would also call a civil war. Neighbors were killing each other with horrifying regularity.' On the field of battle, conditions were punishing. Infectious diseases and starvation stalked the soldiers as both sides employed scorched-earth tactics and fought bitterly to hold their ground in South and North Carolina. Many Americans barely remember learning about the siege of Charleston and the battles of Camden, Kings Mountain, and Cowpens, but these were crucial to the eventual victory at Yorktown. There were some heroes, such as Johann von Robais, a superb German military officer who died fighting for the Americans, but there were cruel and opportunistic officers on both sides: the 'coldblooded and ruthless' British officer Banastre Tarleton and American officer Thomas Sumter, who authorized his troops to pay themselves by plundering property, which included enslaved people. Crawford follows the revolutionaries in their quest to cut off British supply lines from the coast to the backcountry. The author could have strengthened his superior account with more attention to the loyalists’ point of view. Nonetheless, he provides a clear picture of the stark cost of American independence on both sides of the conflict. A clear, coherent, and even suspenseful account of the American Revolution." — Kirkus Reviews
"Elegant.... Incisive.... Crawford’s objective discussion of the South’s role in the Revolutionary War makes for compelling reading." — Andy Brack, Charleston City Paper
"Crawford brings his cast of characters, ranging from ‘Swamp Fox’ Francis Marion to the alternately cavorting and cruel British officer Banastre Tarleton, to life with a beguiling blend of erudition, wit, insight and sympathy." — Bill Kauffman, The Spectator World
"A valuable addition to Revolutionary War history that adds useful detail and perspective." — Mark Knoblauch, Booklist
