This volume continues the best and most detailed study of the Revolutionary War in the South. In more than 1,000 documents, it traces the British evacuation of Georgia as well as General Nathanael Greene’s ongoing efforts to force a British withdrawal from South Carolina.
Despite evidence that the British were planning to pull out of the lower South, Greene twice turned down British proposals for an end to hostilities in the region, and the fighting and killing continued. Mistrusting his enemy’s motives, Greene reasoned that only a militarily strong and politically unified America could convince Britain to abandon entirely its campaign to subdue the new nation. Greene’s efforts to bolster his forces were thwarted, however, by an increasing war-weariness among the American people, a lack of supplies, and an outbreak of malaria. Despite these problems, Greene and his army enjoyed some success with the British withdrawal from Savannah and a decrease in the threat posed by Indians on the southern frontier.