The Revolutionary War in the South： Animated Battle Map

April 19th, 1775. A shot rings out on Lexington Green. America's war for independence has begun. The eyes of the world are focused on New England, but the clouds of war sweep across the South. In South Carolina, Patriot troops seize Fort Charlotte on the Savannah River and drive Georgia's royal governor from Savannah after the Battle of the Rice Boats. The British are driven from Virginia at the Battle of Great Bridge. Emboldened by their success, South Carolinians establish a constitution to govern the colony independently from King George. In North Carolina, citizens of Mecklenburg County reject the rule of Parliament and the Crown, while the Halifax Resolves direct the North Carolina delegation to the Continental Congress to advocate for independence. But liberty is not the desire of every Southern colonist. South Carolina is the most politically divided. The Low Country, including the major port of Charleston, is a Patriot stronghold, while the Back Country is home to a mixture of both those loyal to the British Crown and to those who want independence. The opposing elements clash in Back Country battles. The First Land Battle of the South occurs at 96 in November of 1775, where a Loyalist militia besieges a Patriot garrison. In North Carolina, Loyalist recruiting is aflame. On February 27, 1776, Patriot forces fight and crush the Loyalists in the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge, a demoralizing defeat for the British that effectively ended Loyalist activity in North Carolina for years. In June 1776, the British, led by Sir Henry Clinton and Sir Peter Parker, try but fail to capture Charleston by land and sea in the Battle of Sullivan's Island. Meanwhile, the colonists declare their independence, while the Revolution rages in the North. General George Washington's forces capture Boston, while New York and Philadelphia fall to the British. Half of America's best ports lay in British hands. Stalemate grips the North. At the end of 1778, the British undertake a Southern strategy, a concentrated effort to subdue the Southern colonies. Should the British have to sue for peace, they prefer to do so with the prosperous Southern colonies under their control. Rice, indigo, cotton, and other cash crops abound in the South, crops that cannot be produced in the British Isles. The High Command, too, is convinced that thousands of Loyalists await their return. By securing the South, the British hope to cut the colonies in two, leave the Northern colonies to their own devices, and control the prosperous South. The first blows fall in Georgia. The British capture Savannah and gain a deep water base of operations. Patriot forces counter with the decisive victory at the Battle of Kettle Creek, but it is not enough. In March 1779, the British win at Briar Creek, effectively subduing Patriot forces in Georgia. In April 1779, the British again try to capture Charleston, but are deterred by the arrival of Continental reinforcements. Patriot General Benjamin Lincoln attacks the British rear guard at the Battle of Stono Ferry, but is repulsed. In September 1779, a combined force of French and Continentals set their sights on British-held Savannah, where a lengthy siege and costly assault only end in repulse. The momentum shifts to the British, who again turn their attention to Charleston. Sir Henry Clinton sails from New York to command the attack. By April 1780, the British have laid siege, and the city capitulates on May 12th, resulting in the largest surrender of American forces during the war. In the aftermath, a Patriot relief column bound for Charleston is massacred by Lieutenant Colonel Bannister Tarleton in the Battle of Waxhaws. The war had reached a new and bloody phase. With the Continental command structure in tatters, the South Carolina Patriots fight a partisan war to disrupt British and Loyalist forces. These partisans, commanded by such men as Francis Marion, Thomas Sumter, Andrew Pickens, Elijah Clark, and William Davey, harass and ambush British forces at every opportunity. With the capture of Charleston, Clinton returns to New York, leaving Lord Charles Cornwallis in command to finish the subjugation of the southern colonies. The Continental Congress sends General Horatio Gates to the south with a fresh army to stem the British tide. Cornwallis and Gates clash at Camden, South Carolina, where the Continentals suffer a terrible defeat. For the second time in 97 days, and for the third time in the last 20 months, the Patriots have no regular army in the south, but motivated Patriot militias remain. From his headquarters in Camden, South Carolina, Cornwallis sends Major Patrick Ferguson West to recruit and train Loyalists. Tired of the Patriots' backcountry raids, Ferguson decrees that he will hang their leaders and lay their country waste with fire and sword if the overmountain men did not lay down their arms. This infuriates the backcountry overmountain men, who set out over the mountains to confront Ferguson and his army of Loyalists. They stop at a place called the Cowpens on October 6th, kill a couple of beef cattle, and refresh themselves. At dusk, 910 of the men with the best horses push on toward Kings Mountain, where they heard they would find Ferguson. On October 7th, they envelop the steep base of Kings Mountain and close in on Ferguson's unsuspecting army. At 3 p.m., they attack, firing uphill from the cover of the mountain's boulders and trees. Many of the overmountain men recognize the faces of family and neighbors in the harried ranks of the Carolina Loyalists. Major Patrick Ferguson, the only British officer present, declares that God himself would not remove him from that mountain. Ferguson is killed during the battle, and at least eight Loyalists are hanged, punctuating the risk of loyalty to the crown. That same month, George Washington appoints Nathaniel Green to command the army in the Southern Department. Green divides his army and sends General Daniel Morgan to the west to spirit up the people and to protect that part of the country. This forces Cornwallis to split his army, and he sends Lieutenant Colonel Bannister Tarleton west to protect the entire 96th District and the Star Fort. When Morgan hears that Tarleton is heading his way, he decides to meet him at a well-known pasturing area called the Cowpens, the same place where the overmountain men had stopped before going to Kings Mountain. Morgan makes an unconventional move and splits his force into three main lines of defense and puts the militia in the first two lines, with the Continentals in the third line, and the Dragoons in reserve. On the morning of January 17, 1781, Tarleton's force charges. The first, then second lines of Patriots withdraw. The British then charge the third line, but soon find themselves ensnared in a double envelopment as the withdrawing Patriots reappear on their left and right flank. In less than 30 minutes, a significant portion of Cornwallis' army is destroyed. Green then adopts a strategy of exhaustion. He moves towards the Dan River on the North Carolina-Virginia border, wearing the British down along the way, pulling them further from their supply base. In the race to the Dan, Patriots use numerous fords and ferries to keep the British guessing. An exhausted British army watches Green escape across the Dan River intact. The British turn toward Hillsboro, North Carolina, while Green's revitalized army recrosses the Dan in pursuit. The armies meet in battle at Guilford Courthouse, and Cornwallis would later write that during the battle, the Americans fought like demons. The British win the battle, but suffer more casualties than the Americans, which causes Charles James Fox to state in Parliament that another such victory would destroy the British army. The British fall back toward Wilmington, clearing the way for Green to retake the Carolinas. On April 25, 1781, near Camden, South Carolina, Green's forces are bested at the Battle of Hobkirk's Hill. Although a tactical victory for the British, it serves as a strategic victory for the Patriots. From May 22 to June 19, 1781, Green, with 1,000 Patriot troops, stages the longest field siege of the Revolutionary War against 550 Loyalists, who are defending 96 from an earthen star fort. Under the direction of Polish freedom fighter, Colonel Thaddeus Kosciuszko, the chief engineer of the Patriot Army, the Patriots begin digging a mine underneath the star fort, planning to pack it with gunpowder and blow it up, thus allowing the Patriots to storm the Loyalist-held star fort. However, after dark on June 9, 1781, a small group of Loyalists attack the Patriot sappers digging the mine. Despite multiple raids, the Patriots continue work on the mine throughout the siege. Then, Green receives news that British reinforcements are on their way. Time, and British troops, would soon be closing in on him. On June 18, Green makes one last assault on the fort. The attack is a failure, and Green withdraws his army from 96. Both sides claim victory at Utah Springs, South Carolina on September 8, 1781. But the British casualties are so great, they again withdraw to the Charleston area. Meanwhile, Cornwallis decides to open a final campaign in Virginia to change the odds in his favor. There, the British could receive faster reinforcements and supplies from the British stronghold in New York City, while driving the fight inland to separate the northern and southern colonies. Petersburg, Richmond, Portsmouth, and Norfolk fall into British hands. Cornwallis nearly destroys a force under the command of Washington's protégé, the Marquis de Lafayette, at the Battle of Greenspring. By September of 1781, Cornwallis is encamped near Yorktown. Sensing that Cornwallis had backed himself into a corner, a combined American and French force, led by General Washington, rushes to Virginia in hopes of boxing in the British from the landward side, while a fleet of French ships seals off the British from the sea. French and American forces capture key British redoubts to seal their siege lines. After three weeks of siege operations, Cornwallis capitulates on October 19th, 1781. The war continues for nearly two more years, but the major fighting is over. The British evacuate Charleston on December 14th, 1782. The Treaty of Paris officially ends the American Revolution on September 3rd, 1783. Perhaps Nathaniel Green best summarized the character of the Southern Patriots. We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again. This tenacious attitude ultimately secured America's independence on the numerous battlefields of the South. There is no American land more hallowed and more essential to telling the American story of liberty and freedom than these battlegrounds.