This volume continues the best and most detailed study of the Revolutionary War in the South. More than 780 documents illuminate a vital but largely overlooked phase of the war—the lengthy and turbulent period from allied victory at Yorktown until the final achievement of peace and American independence.
By December of 1781, General Nathanael Greene's army had forced the British into retreating to Charleston, South Carolina. But in the lower South, in particular, the war was far from over. Greene's position as commander of the Southern Department involved him in nearly every aspect of the military, political, and economic life of the region during the last years of the war. Thus, his papers provide an overview not only of the war, but also of politics, the economy, and life in the South. In addition, the documents in this volume show Greene in a different light: the master strategist of earlier volumes has now given way to Greene as innovative military leader and politically astute general.
