For this Memorial Day, the Virginia History Blog looks at five titles about the American Revolution. “A Leap in the Dark” addresses the challenges of political leadership. “Almost a Miracle” is a military history of the Revolution, and “George Washington’s Enforcers” explains Continental Army justice and discipline. Considerations of political and social history are explored in “War and Society in the American Revolution”, and “The Politics of War” focuses on divisions in Revolutionary Virginia.
A Leap in the Dark
John Ferling wrote A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic in 2003. It is available from Oxford University Press, on Kindle, Audiobook and online new and used.
Ferling narrates American history from the Albany Congress of 1754 at the onset of the French and Indian War to Jefferson’s presidential inauguration in 1801. He researches the sources of prominent Revolutionary leaders, as well as middling citizens engaged in political conflict, wartime suffering and loss. Adherents to the patriot cause were divided regionally and within each state by class. Despite minority factions in every former British colony, the establishment of the American Union was central to the American Revolution.
Events were contingent upon one another without any preordained conclusion, especially the story of financing the multiple efforts. Factions were expansionist, whether commercially in the North or territorially in the South, and ideologically driven, nationalists in the North and agrarians in the South. Ferling concentrates on those who sought to lead the Patriot cause and the problems of leadership in a chronological narrative that illuminates important political developments from the imperial crisis of the 1760s through the Confederation, Constitution and establishment of the new nation.
To buy “A Leap in the Dark” on Amazon, click here.
Almost a Miracle
John Ferling wrote Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence in 2007. It is available on Kindle and online new and used.
This military history of the American Revolution complements Ferling’s earlier political history, A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic (2003). It is a battlefield history of grand strategy and military operations, of overcoming manpower, equipment and supply shortages to defeat the armies fielded by the British Empire.
The focus is on Washington, his inner circle of advisers and the senior leadership in the Continental Army in the principle theater of combat. The shift to war in the South is described, as well as the ways the Continental Army evolved beyond an aggregation of state militias. The importance of American sea power, alliance with the French, and the often neglected final two years of war are also considered.
To buy “Almost a Miracle” on Amazon, click here.
*Don Higginbotham wrote Revolution in America: Considerations and Comparisons in 2005. It is out of print but available online new and used. To buy “Revolution in America” on Amazon, click here.
George Washington’s Enforcers
Harry M. Ward wrote George Washington’s Enforcers: Policing the Continental Army in 2006. It is available from the Southern Illinois University Press, and on Kindle.
The military justice and its enforcement in the Continental Army was similar to European 18th century armies, it was strict and brutal by modern standards. Yet punishment in the American Army was somewhat more humane due to the habits carried over from state militias and short-term enlistments. There was no professional military police, but several policing methods were tried, including a mounted military police force, camp guards, musicians, provost marshals and others. Washington developed a stern system of discipline derived from British practice in consultation with his generals and Congress.
In addition to an overview of revolutionary military justice, Ward places it in the context of late colonial experience, the social composition of the Continental troops, and soldier accounts of the discipline as it was administered to them. At any given time, perhaps one-forth of the army field strength was committed to catching spies and stragglers, policing camp order, preventing desertions, and meeting out discipline.
To buy “George Washington’s Enforcers” on Amazon, click here.
War and Society in the American Revolution
John Resch and Walter Sargent edited War and Society in the American Revolution: Mobilization and Home Fronts in 2007. It is available from the Northern Illinois University Press and online new and used.
This collection of eleven essays integrates the history of military operations with social context of the period. They explore motivations, mobilization for patriot and loyalist causes, and the war’s impact on the home front.
The section on New England examines how recruitment for the war was maintained throughout the conflict. In Virginia, recruitment fell to 24 percent of the state’s quota by 1781 amidst fears of slave revolt. The war in the South was the most violent among the civilian populations, the most starkly civil war of eight years.
The Continental Army recruited black soldiers in both the North and the South, integrating line units, although most black service was in digging, hauling and foraging. Not only British Indian allies suffered loss of land, but ally Oneidas did also.
To buy “War and Society in the American Revolution” on Amazon, click here.
The Politics of War
Michael A. McDonnell wrote The Politics of War: Race, Class, and Conflict in Revolutionary Virginia in 2007. It is available from the University of North Carolina Press, on Kindle and online new and used.
This book provides a year-by-year account of mobilization for the Revolutionary War in the Commonwealth of Virginia as a State. The British aggressively raided Virginia with an eye to disrupting slave tobacco plantations and freeing as many as could be recruited. The internal politics of Virginia became divided between freeholders with many slaves versus those with few or none at all. The resulting conflicts reshaped power relationships in the Virginia.
Those with many slaves were able to control recruitment and exempt their overseers. Those with few slaves wanted to stay at home to maintain them. Those without slaves, often landless and without a vote, objected to the rigors of militia training and regular army discipline even more so. Virginia tried shorter enlistments and larger bounties, with declining success. The home front was divided in a civil war and was internally in flux due to democratization of state and county politics, slave resistance and the stresses of supporting the cause under British incursions.
To buy “The Politics of War” on Amazon, click here.
*Simon Schama wrote Rough Crossing: Britain, the Slaves, and the American Revolution in 2006. It is available from HarperCollins and online in paperback and in audiobook. To buy “Rough Crossing” on Amazon, click here.
Additional history related to Virginia during this time period can be found at the Table of Contents of TheVirginiaHistorian website on the page for Revolution, Constitution and New Nation Era 1750-1824. Titles are organized by topics, political and economic Virginia, social history, gender, religious, African American, and Wars in Virginia 1750-1824.
General surveys of Virginia History can be found at Virginia History Surveys. Other Virginia history divided by topics and time periods can be found at the webpage Books and Reviews.
Note: Insights for these reviews include those available from articles in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, the William and Mary Quarterly, the Journal of the Civil War Era, the Journal of Southern History and the Journal of American History.