SOME GREAT WRITER, WHO SHOULD HAVE known better, let himself be quoted to the effect that an essential qualification for greatness was having an unhappy childhood. One of the many reasons that I have not qualified was having a father who had the uncanny knack of anticipating the next book I would want. Getting such a book was a double joy: I had gotten something I could treasure, and I was spared the gift of an Erector Set intended for boys who had a positive hatred for gadgetry designed to frustrate and embarrass them.
Now, many years later, I have found another way to ensure my happiness. I leave—very casually—a list lying about where a clever wife can pick it up, and seeing that it is indeed a wish list of wanted books, quietly leak copies to family and friends, thus making sure that I get for Christmas or birthday a book—instead of a tie or shirt that I wouldn’t wear on a rattlesnake hunt.
Perhaps this is the reason that I want to leave my reader some sources that he can really use, especially if he is working in a field like my own. It is in that spirit that the following sources have been assembled.
The two richest and most dependable general sources are almost companion pieces which deserve to be within arm’s reach when one is searching for an overall view of the war that can be further focused on specific campaigns and battles. The first, a classic, is Christopher Ward, The War of the Revolution, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1952), which is by no means restricted to the narration of military operations, but also includes personalities, background events, weapons, uniforms—the whole gamut of military interests, all presented in a never-dull narrative style. The second is Mark M. Boatner III, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution (New York: David McKay, 1976), which goes into every aspect of the American Revolution—social, political, economic, and biographical. Yet the depth of coverage of everything military—from Arnold’s treason to Yorktown—is truly rewarding.
Another comprehensive work is Page Smith, A New Age Now Begins, 2 vols. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976). We are indeed fortunate that the bicentennial encouraged the writing of this work. Samuel Eliot Morison has called it “a great and magnificent work. . . . He [Smith] is equally good on political events and military history. . . . He has, so far as I can judge, left no source, printed or manuscript, unread, he has really absorbed them, eschewing footnotes, at which the public will rejoice.”
For the operations that Washington directed there can be no better source than the monumental seven-volume work of Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington, A Biography, 7 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1951), with particular reference to the battles of Trenton, Princeton, and Brandywine. For seeing military operations from the British side, there is the highly respected Sir John Fortescue’s A History of the British Army, 13 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1902), wherein one can draw on volume 3,1763–1793, for Fortescue’s insight in his analysis of a leader’s tactics or strategy.
For a concise overview of the war, one that can provide guidance to more detailed studies, one can rely on the one-volume condensation of R. E. Dupuy and T. N. Dupuy, An Outline History of the American Revolution (New York: Harper and Row, 1975). Those who wish to explore events from a personal narrative viewpoint will find a wealth of material in the two-volume compendium of Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, The Spirit of ’Seventy-Six: The Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1958). And for those who care to do their own exploring of battlefields and campaign regions there is the excellent three-volume guide by Sol Stember, The Bicentennial Guide to the American Revolution (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1974), which can be relied on as a Baedeker and historical authority all in one.
Because the Introduction opens with a brief look at the background of the war followed by the rationale for the book’s focus on the selection of pertinent examples, I have depended on the general sources noted above for presenting the background of the war and the book’s focus on strategy and tactics. Once past the opening portion, I turn to subjects that will provide the reader with enough orientation information to aid him in understanding the soldier and officer on both sides as well as their weapons and dress.
The evolution of tactics which guided the employment of the combat arms on both sides (the American leaders as well as the British they at first emulated) are best traced in two sources. The first is Archer Jones, The Art of War in the Western World (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987), a recent work that is gaining recognition for its perception of the influences which bore upon the development of strategy and tactical systems. The other is David G. Chandler, The Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough (New York: Hippocrene Books, 1976), which, as its title indicates, examines the evolution of tactics and strategy that continued to govern the employment of British forces throughout the eighteenth century. Another source, J. F. C. Fuller’s British Light Infantry in the Eighteenth Century (London: Hutchinson, 1925), gives more information on infantry tactics in general than the title would indicate. Another that belies its title by providing much more than it indicates is Edward E. Curtis, The Organization of the British Army in the American Revolution (New York: AMS Press, 1969), which goes into fine detail on many other factors such as administration, logistics, command, pay, recruiting, and the regimental system—down to the uniforms of individual regiments.
The following deal with the individual soldier: his life on campaign, his weapons (including their effectiveness in battle), and his dress. Charles K. Bolton, The Private Soldier under Washington (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1902), looks into most of the aspects of the Continental and militia soldier’s life in training and in the field. Joe D. Huddleston, Colonial Riflemen in the American Revolution (York, Pa.: George Shumway, 1978), does much the same for the rifleman. Harold L. Peterson concentrates on the American “regular” in The Book of the Continental Soldier (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole, 1968). Getting into the weapons of both sides, a full coverage with excellent photographs and sketches can be found in George C. Neumann, The History of Weapons of the American Revolution (New York: Harper and Row, 1967). The description and development of weapons and their effectiveness on the battlefield are covered by an expert in the field, Major General B. P. Hughes of the British army, in Firepower: Weapons Effectiveness on the Battlefield, 1630–1850 (London: Arms and Armour Press, 1974). The drill regulations for the American soldier and units, covering training and combat, have been presented in a simplified version of von Steuben’s original manual, featuring excellent illustrations, in A. N. Schultz and Robert Coleman, Illustrated Drill Manual and Regulations for the American Soldier of the Revolutionary War (Charlotte, N.C.: Sugarcreek, 1976). The uniforms of the soldiers and officers of the various branches, both American and British, are discussed and shown in color in two publications: Philip Katcher, Armies of the American Wars, 1753–1815 (New York: Hastings House, 1975); and Martin Windrow and Gerry Embleton, Military Dress of North America, 1665–1970 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1973).
There are no better leads into the military background of the siege of Boston than the host of problems that beset the British high command in 1775. John R. Alden presents the situation from the British viewpoint in General Gage in America (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1948). General Gage’s case is broadened by Troyer S. Anderson, The Command of the Howe Brothers during the American Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1936). The history of the siege, including the Battle of Bunker Hill, is contained in a classic source: Richard Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston (1903; reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1970). An interesting picture of the Minutemen and their background before Lexington and Concord is offered in Robert A. Gross, The Minutemen and Their World (New York: Hill and Wang, 1976).
As one might expect, there are numerous books narrating and analyzing the Battle of Bunker Hill. Those I have found to be most useful fall into two categories: first, those that typify the formal nineteenth-century approach; second, modern works that combine stimulating description with critical perception. The following two fall into the first category. The title indicates the contents of Samuel A. Drake, Bunker Hill: The Story Told in Letters from the Battlefield (Boston: Nichols and Hall, 1875), bearing in mind that the letters were those of British officers. The second is in a more traditional style: George E. Ellis, History of the Battle of Bunker’s [Breed’s] Hill (Boston: Lockwood, Brooks, 1875).
In the second, or present-day, category, one work stands out as best fitting the above definition: John R. Elting, The Battle of Bunker’s Hill (Monmouth Beach, N.J.: Philip Freneau Press, 1975), is narrated in a wryly realistic way, while the author at the same time displays military perception of a high order in analyzing the course of the action. Thomas J. Fleming, Now We Are Enemies: The Story of Bunker Hill (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1960), not only takes a good look into the background of the battle but tells its story in detail. The same may be said for the narrative by Richard M. Ketchum in The Battle for Bunker Hill (Garden City: Doubleday, 1962), and is also excellent for his portrayal of personalities. Henry I. Kurtz, “Bunker Hill, 1775: A Dear Bought Victory,” American History Illustrated 2 (1967), provides a concise summary of the battle.
In no other action of the war does the recounting seem to center more on the leaders than the ill-fated siege and the assaults on Fortress Quebec at the end of 1775. Richard Montgomery, the overall commander, was killed while leading one assault, and Benedict Arnold, the secondary commander, was badly wounded while leading the other. For comprehensive coverage of background, the expeditionary forces’ approaches, the siege, and the assaults, the following sources are noteworthy. Justin H. Smith, Our Struggle for the Fourteenth Colony, 2 vols. (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907), remains a classic that retains its worth. George F. G. Stanley, Canada Invaded, 1775–1776 (Toronto: A.M. Hakkert, 1973), is a modern study which presents events more from the British viewpoint. Other useful present-day studies are Harrison Bird, Attack on Quebec (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968); and Robert McConnell Hatch, Thrust for Canada: The American Attempt on Quebec in 1775–1776 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979). An accurate account of the siege and assaults can be found in Michael Pearson, “The Siege of Quebec, 1775–1776,” American Heritage 23, no. 2 (February 1972).
Arnold’s march to Quebec, so famous for the incredible adversities and hardships endured by his men, is best seen through the journals of the participants. The most interesting and accurate accounts have been assembled by the novelist Kenneth Roberts, a scholar in his own right, in March to Quebec: Journals of the Members of Arnold’s Expedition (New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1938). An excellent overall view of the expedition is found in the article by Robert G. Crist and Joseph P. Cullen, “Arnold’s March to Quebec,” American History Illustrated 3, no. 7 (November 1968).
The first sources given here are the more comprehensive studies of the background and conduct of the campaign (given that the battles of Trenton and Princeton were fought in one campaign, and not two) as well as that of the battles. Richard M. Ketchum, The Winter Soldiers (Garden City: Doubleday, 1973), is that kind of book, written in a lively yet accurate fashion. Another comprehensive study in the broader context of the war in the east is Leonard Lundin, Cockpit of the Revolution: The War for Independence in New Jersey (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1940). An older but still reliable source is William S. Stryker, The Battles of Trenton and Princeton (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1898). Howard Fast’s The Crossing (New York: William Morrow, 1971), tells the story of Trenton with an absorbing style which gives one a fresh look at the personalities on the American side. Ray Thompson, Washington along the Delaware (Fort Washington, Pa.: Bicentennial Press, 1970), is interesting for a view of the locales around which the Trenton part of the campaign took place.
Additional works pertaining to the Princeton part of the campaign and the battle itself start with Samuel S. Smith, The Battle of Princeton (Monmouth Beach, N.J.: Philip Freneau Press, 1967). A second is Alfred Hoyt Bill, The Campaign of Princeton, 1776–1777 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1946). An article which provides both a detailed account and excellent terrain sketches is Thomas J. Wertenbaker, “The Battle of Princeton,” in The Princeton Battle Monument (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1922).
Two supplementary works should not be overlooked. An exceptionally fine account of the artillery’s role in both battles (really critical at Trenton) is Jac Weller, “Guns of Destiny: Field Artillery in the Trenton-Princeton Campaign,” Military Affairs 20 (Spring 1956). Another critical aspect, the crossing of the Delaware, is covered in the article by George A. Billias, “Soldier in a Longboat,” American Heritage 11, no. 2 (February 1960), which centers on Colonel John Glover and his Marblehead, Massachusetts, regiment of sailor-soldiers who did such a superb job of ferrying Washington’s troops across the Delaware on that stormy Christmas night.
There are no more accurate and militarily perceptive sources than my old reliables, Ward and Boatner, for this campaign and battle. Ward’s War of the Revolution offers its usual penetrating treatment of events and personalities, and also contributes insight into the intelligence picture—or the obscuration of it on the American side. Ward is seconded, as almost always, by Boatner, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, in the entries under PHILADELPHIA CAMPAIGN and BRANDYWINE, which contribute to intelligence as well as to operations. The above are well supported by Douglas Southall Freeman in volume 4 of his noted George Washington, A Biography. Freeman is particularly valuable for clarifying the reasons behind the confusing intelligence picture that so distressed Washington on the day of the battle.
The following three sources serve to round out, in varying detail, the works cited above. First is John F. Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, July 1, 1777–December 19, 1777 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965; reprint, New York: Pioneer Press, 1980). Another is Troyer S. Anderson, The Command of the Howe Brothers during the American Revolution, which was also useful in the chapter on Bunker Hill. There is also the work of Edward S. Gifford, Jr., The American Revolution in the Delaware Valley (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution, 1976). A source that is particularly interesting because the author was born and raised in the Brandywine area and furnishes abundant detail of the terrain is Wilmer W. MacElree, Along the Western Brandywine (West Chester, Pa.: published by the author, 1909).
Eyewitness accounts which provide corroborative detail are, first, Major John André’s Journal (Tarrytown, N.Y.: William Abbatt, 1930), the same André who was captured and hung as a spy in the Benedict Arnold-West Point affair in September 1777. André was serving as a staff officer with a fine opportunity to be in on British plans and operations. Another well-qualified observer was the Hessian officer Major Baurmeister, whose letters provide a good part of the picture: Letters from Major Baurmeister to Colonel von Jungkenn, Written during the Philadelphia Campaign, 1777–1778 (Philadelphia: Historical Society of Philadelphia, 1937). A local civilian who was caught up in the action has left his impressions of the battle in “Some Account of the British Army under General Howe and of the Battle of Brandywine,” Bulletin of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania 1, no. 7 (1846).
As usual, both Christopher Ward and Mark Boatner provide the starting point for background as well as for narration and critical insight. In the case of Oriskany, however, I have leaned most heavily on John Albert Scott, Fort Stanwix and Oriskany (Rome, N.Y.: Rome Sentinel Company, 1927), for depth of detail and the exploration of local sources and terrain of both the region and the battlefield. Following Scott I have found most useful Hoffman Nickerson’s enduring work in volume 1 of The Turning Point of the Revolution, 2 vols. (Boston, 1928; reprint, Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1967). Useful also for checking on recorded information is the Orderly Book of Sir John Johnson: During the Oriskany Campaign, 1776–1777 (Albany, N.Y.: John Munsell’s Sons, 1882). A wealth of detail regarding the Loyalists and the Indian allies is found in William L. Stone, The Campaign of Lieut. Gen. John Burgoyne, and the Expedition of Lieut. Col. Barry St. Leger (New York: Da Capo Press Reprint series, 1970). Another source, old but still of value, is Howard Swiggett, War out of Niagara (New York: Columbia University Press, 1933).
Several articles by scholars who have been interested in Oriskany must be included. Freeman H. Allen, “St. Leger’s Invasion and the Battle of Oriskany,” Quarterly Journal of the New York State Historical Association 1, no. 12 (1913), is based on solid research. Another is J. Watts DePeyster, “Oriskany,” The Magazine of American History (With Notes & Queries), vol. 2 (1878). A third is Gerard A. Patterson, “The Battle of Oriskany,” American History Illustrated 11, no. 4 (July 1976).
Whether reading for research or pleasure about Saratoga (or, more realistically, the two battles of Saratoga) it is helpful to approach the subject by heeding what J. F. C. Fuller had to say about Waterloo in volume 2 of A Military History of the Western World: “[It] has been so thoroughly investigated and criticized that the errors committed in it are apt to appear exceptional and glaring. They were not, they were the usual errors to be found in most campaigns.” So true is that about Saratoga and the number of works written about it that it is small wonder that one is hard put to select those most helpful. My selective criterion has been, of necessity, made simple: I list those sources to which I would return if I were to do further research on the battle(s).
First, there is the venerable but enduring classic by Sir Edward S. Creasy, The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World (1851; reprint, New York: George Macy Companies, 1969), for background of the battle’s place in history. Next, and deservedly next to Creasy, is John R. Elting, The Battles of Saratoga (Monmouth Beach, N.J.: Philip Freneau Press, 1977), which does the same superb job that Elting did for Bunker Hill, that is, with a combination of an engaging style and critical insight. Another by an Englishman writing in America is Rupert Furneaux, The Battle of Saratoga (New York: Stein and Day, 1971), which has succeeded in putting a lot in a small space. Two other books are even better for their treatment of Saratoga than they were for Oriskany, in which they proved so valuable: Hoffman Nickerson, The Turning Point of the Revolution; and William L. Stone, The Campaign of Lieut. Gen. John Burgoyne, and the Expedition of Lieut. Col. Barry St. Leger.
General John Burgoyne presents his own case, as he laid it before the House of Commons three years after his surrender at Saratoga, in A State of the Expedition from Canada (1780; reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1969). Burgoyne’s expedition and its trials and errors are narrated in a present-day work: Thomas Anburey, With Burgoyne from Quebec (Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1963). Burgoyne’s life and his Saratoga campaign are well presented, first, in F.J. Hudleston, Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1927), and, second, in James Lunt, John Burgoyne of Saratoga (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975). Another official record of Burgoyne’s has been edited by E. B. O’Callaghan in Orderly Book of Lieut. Gen. John Burgoyne (Albany, N.Y.: J. Munsell, 1860). More light is shed on Burgoyne’s life and his various talents in Edward B. De Fonblanque, Political and Military Episodes in the Latter Half of the Eighteenth Century Derived from the Life and Correspondence of the Right Hon. John Burgoyne, General, Statesman, Dramatist (London: Macmillan, 1876).
Jane Clark has explored the complexities of the political/military factors which involved personages such as Lord Germain, Sir William Howe, and Burgoyne in “Responsibility for the Failure of the Burgoyne Campaign,” American Historical Review 35, no. 3 (April 1930). The friction between Benedict Arnold and Horatio Gates that led to confrontation and Arnold’s loss of command are examined in two articles: John F. Luzader, “The Arnold-Gates Controversy,” West Virginia History 27, no. 2 (January 1966); and Paul D. Nelson, “The Gates-Arnold Quarrel, September 1777,” New York Historical Quarterly 55, no. 3 (July 1971). Another article looks into the battle itself: Joseph P. Cullen’s “Saratoga,” American History Illustrated 10, no. 1 (April 1975). Yet another which provides background material on Daniel Morgan, his riflemen, and their parts in both battles of Saratoga is found in William W. Edwards, “Morgan and His Riflemen,” William and Mary Quarterly 23, no. 2 (October 1914).
Key personalities are treated in the following biographies: James Graham, The Life of General Daniel Morgan (New York: Derby and Jackson, 1856); Samuel W. Patterson, Horatio Gates (New York: Columbia University Press, 1941); Charles C. Sellers, Benedict Arnold: The Proud Warrior (New York: Minton, Balch, 1930); Willard M. Wallace, Traitorous Hero: The Life and Fortunes of Benedict Arnold (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1954); William B. Willcox, Portrait of a General: Sir Henry Clinton in the War of Independence (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964); and William L. Stone, Memoirs and Letters and Journals of Major General Riedesel (Albany, N.Y.: J. Munsell, 1868). Last, not a biography but rather the memoirs of a scoundrel whose accounts must be checked against those of other participants is James Wilkinson, Memoirs of My Own Times, 3 vols. (Philadelphia: Abraham Small, 1816), vol. 1.
Turning to the war in the South, the first works recommended are the more general histories which furnish the background of the battle. First is John R. Alden, The South in the Revolution, 1763–1789 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1957). Another authoritative source is Sydney G. Fisher, The Struggle for American Independence, 2 vols. (1908; reprint, Freeport, N.Y.: Books For Libraries Press, 1971). A memoir by a famous participant is Henry Lee’s Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States (New York: University Publishing, 1869). A recent study by the late Henry Lumpkin of the University of South Carolina, From Savannah to Yorktown (Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1981), is excellent for both general history and detailed coverage of battles. For a close look into the North Carolina picture, see David Schenck, North Carolina, 1780–81: Being a History of the Invasion of the Carolinas (Raleigh, N.C.: Edwards and Broughton, 1889). Franklin and Mary Wickwire’s work, while biographical in nature, gives an excellent narration of campaigns and battles: Cornwallis: The American Adventure (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970).
The British Loyalist (Tory) background, including their conflicts with patriotic neighbors, is essential to the study of the war in the South; the following three sources provide an insight: North Callahan, Royal Raiders: The Tories of the American Revolution (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1963); Robert M. Calhoon, The Royalists in Revolutionary America, 1760–1781 (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1965); and Robert O. DeMond, The Loyalists in North Carolina during the Revolution (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1940).
Getting into the campaign and battle, the following examine variously the precursors, the immediate events leading up to the battle, and the actions of participants. Robert D. Bass, The Green Dragoon (Columbia, S.C.: Sandlapper Press, 1973), narrates events before the campaign from the viewpoint of the notorious Banastre Tarleton, the British cavalry leader. Wilma Dykeman, With Fire and Sword: The Battle of Kings Mountain, 1780 (Washington: National Park Service, 1978), is outstanding for its depiction of the people of the region at the time, as well as the gathering of the over-mountain men and the events that followed. An official history that still furnishes interesting facets is George C. Mackenzie, Kings Mountain National Military Park, Historical Handbook Series no. 22 (Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 1955). A source written by a journalist who was raised in the region is Hank Messick, King’s Mountain (Boston: Little, Brown, 1976); it is excellent for the details of personalities in the battle. For more on personalities, see James Ferguson, Two Scottish Soldiers (Aberdeen, Scotland: D. Wyllie and Son, 1888), which includes a biography of Major Patrick Ferguson, the British commander at Kings Mountain, written by a descendant who knew how to bring out the details of Ferguson’s life and follow up with detail on the battle from the Loyalist side. For the Patriots’ side there are two obviously biased biographical accounts: Lyman C. Draper, King’s Mountain and Its Heroes (Cincinnati: Peter G. Thompson, 1881); and Katherine K. White, The King’s Mountain Men (Dayton, Va., 1924; reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1970).
Because weapons, particularly the flintlock rifle, played an unusually important part in the battle, I recommend Ferguson, Two Scottish Soldiers; and Joe Kindig, Jr., Thoughts on the Kentucky Rifle in Its Golden Age (York, Pa.: George Shumway, 1960). Another source is Robert Lagemann and Albert C. Manucy, The Long Rifle (Eastern Acorn Press, Eastern National Park and Monument Association, 1980).
This American victory was an extraordinary engagement, and the strategy that led to it is of overriding importance. Accordingly, the following have been listed first. Theodore Thayer, Nathanael Greene: Strategist of the American Revolution (New York: Twayne, 1960), is the best source for Greene’s strategy after taking command in the South. Next is an article which has thoroughly examined the strategy: George W. Kyte, “Victory in the South: An Appraisal of General Greene’s Strategy in the Carolinas,” North Carolina Historical Review 37, no. 3 (July 1960). Next, and very well laid out in regard to Greene’s decisions, is M. F. Treacy, Prelude to Yorktown: The Southern Campaign of Nathanael Greene 1780–1781 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1963). Then there is Franklin and Mary Wickwire’s Cornwallis: The American Adventure.
The following deal with events immediately before and during the battle. Robert D. Bass, The Green Dragoon, is an American biography of the British “villain” told in accurate detail after painstaking research. It is accompanied, appropriately, by Tarleton’s own history, A History of the Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in the Southern Provinces of North America (London, 1787). The next, invaluable for its excellent maps and detailed account, is Edwin C. Bearss, The Battle of Cowpens: A Documented Narrative and Troop Movement Maps (Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 1967). Henry Lumpkin, From Savannah to Yorktown, is another work of scholarly worth. Kenneth Roberts does an outstanding job in portraying personalities in action as well as the course of battle in The Battle of Cowpens (Eastern Acorn Press, Eastern National Park and Monument Association, 1981). The last of this category is W. J. Wood, Leaders and Battles (Novato, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1984).
Sources about the key figure on the American side are few but valuable. North Callahan, Daniel Morgan: Ranger of the Revolution (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1961); and Don Higginbotham, Daniel Morgan: Revolutionary Rifleman (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1961), are both of biographical worth. James Graham, The Life of General Daniel Morgan (New York: Derby and Jackson, 1856), also presents Morgan’s side of the battle.
In this chapter the focus has been placed almost equally on the campaign and the battle which ended it. That is why most of the following sources are cited for their useful material on both. Again I used Ward and Boatner to advantage. Other sources include John R. Alden, The South in the Revolution, 1763–1789, followed by George W. Greene, The Life of Nathanael Greene, 3 vols. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1890), and Henry Lee’s Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States. Henry Lumpkin, From Savannah to Yorktown, is excellent for his observation of the battle from both sides. David Schenck, North Carolina, 1780–81: Being a History of the Invasion of the Carolinas, recounts the campaign from the regional viewpoint. Theodore Thayer, Nathanael Greene, Strategist of the American Revolution, lives up to its title in describing the race to the Dan by Greene and Cornwallis. The same strategic maneuvers and the battle that followed are seen from Cornwallis’s viewpoint in Franklin and Mary Wickwire’s Cornwallis: The American Adventure.
Three historians from the National Park Service and an affiliate have studied the battle, and their analyses offer an unbiased and accurate picture. First, there is Courtland T. Reid, Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, Historical Handbook Series, no. 30 (Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 1959). Second, see Charles E. Hatch, Jr., The Battle of Guilford Courthouse (Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 1971). Third is Thomas E. Baker, Another Such Victory (Eastern Acorn Press, Eastern National Park and Monument Association, 1981). Finally, there is Tarleton’s view of the British side of the battle as told by his biographer, Robert D. Bass, in The Green Dragoon.
Because this chapter is devoted to the naval battle that may have decided the outcome of the Revolutionary War (although the question of any battle’s decisiveness is outside the purpose and scope of this book), the first sources listed deal with naval strategy and naval matters. One could best start with the most noted scholar’s works: Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Seapower upon History, 1660–1805, U.S. edition (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1980); and his The Major Operations of the Navies in the War of American Independence ([1913]; reprint, New York: Greenwood Press, 1969). Following Mahan is a source on which I relied heavily throughout my writing of this chapter for its splendid description and accuracy of content in general: Harold A. Larrabee, Decision at the Chesapeake (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1964). A documentary study, edited by F. E. Chadwick, is The Graves Papers: and Other Documents Relating to the Naval Operations of the Yorktown Campaign (New York: Naval History Society, 1916). Burke Davis devotes a goodly amount of his study to the naval battle in his The Campaign that Won America: The Story of Yorktown (New York: Dial Press, 1970). A documentary, brief but very useful, is Institut Français de Washington (eds.), Correspondence of Washington and Comte de Grasse (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1931). A source valuable for background, though not the battle itself, is W. M. James, The British Navy in Adversity: A Study of the War of American Independence (London: Longmans, Green, 1926). A useful study is Charles Lee Lewis, Admiral de Grasse and American Independence (Annapolis: U.S. Naval Institute, 1945; reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1980). Fletcher Pratt, The Battles that Changed History (New York: Hanover House, 1956), is an interesting but very brief summary. By far the most absorbing and descriptive account of the battle is found in volume 2 of Page Smith’s A New Age Now Begins. Karl Gustaf Tornquist’s The Naval Campaigns of Count de Grasse (Philadelphia: Swedish Colonial Society, 1942) is useful for the views of an impartial foreign naval observer.
The following sources are useful in regard to naval history and tactics. Julian S. Corbett, Fighting Instructions, 1580–1816 (Annapolis: U.S. Naval Institute, 1971), is important for the British naval doctrine (indicated in its title) which so influenced Admiral Graves’s conduct of the Battle of the Chesapeake Capes. The next source, important for the same reason, covers much more about naval tactics: Rear Admiral Samuel Shelburne Robison and Mary L. Robison, A History of Naval Tactics from 1530 to 1930 (Annapolis: U.S. Naval Institute, 1942). Directed more toward land operations leading to and at the siege of Yorktown are Henry P. Johnston, The Yorktown Campaign and the Surrender of Cornwallis, 1781 (New York, 1881); the Marquis de Lafayette’s Memoirs, Correspondence and Manuscripts of General Lafayette, vol. 1, 1777–1781 (New York: Saunders and Otley, 1837), and Henry Lumpkin, From Savannah to Yorktown. Also of value is Theodore Thayer, Yorktown: Campaign of Strategic Options (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1975). One should also include William B. Willcox, Portrait of a General: Sir Henry Clinton and the War of Independence (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964), and Franklin and Mary Wickwire, Cornwallis: The American Adventure, in order to appreciate the view of the whole from the standpoint of the British high command.
Finally, there are two studies of value in examining the British strategy—and its fatal shortcomings—that led to the end of major British operations in the war: George W. Kyte, “Strategic Blunder: Lord Cornwallis Abandons the Carolinas,” The Historian, no. 22 (February 1960); and William B. Willcox, “The British Road to Yorktown: A Study in Divided Command,” American Historical Review 52, no. 1 (October 1946).