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If only it were so

John F. Blair Publisher of Winston-Salem puts out a series, Real Voices, Real History. The series now has 17 titles. The new addition is “Voices of the American Revolution in the Carolinas” (2009: 252 pages, $12.95).

Looking for an analysis of the American Revolution in the South? The what and why? You won’t find it in this volume. But you’re alerted of that in the introduction: “Voices of the American Revolution in the Carolinas” largely leaves the causes to other writers and looks at how the war felt, through eyewitness accounts of those who fought the battles and skirmishes.”

Oh, if only it were so. What a book this would be had that promise been kept. I’ve never been in a war – discounting domestic disputes. But from everything I’ve read about them, fiction and nonfiction, boring they aren’t. Boring this is.

Now, to be fair; there are exceptions. After all, the “voices” are of Revolutionary War notables such as Gen. William R. Davie, Gen. Nathanael Greene, Gen. Francis Marion, Gen. Daniel Morgan, Gen. William Moultrie, and “Light Horse Harry” Lee, and so on. Not surprisingly, it’s the “voices” in the lesser ranks that tell the most arresting accounts, particularly at the Battle of King’s Mountain. The generals’ accounts tend to be so dry that only an income tax specialist could appreciate them.

What the book sorely needs is maps. The accounts of the battles with the troop maneuvers and first and second lines and right and left flanks are incomprehensible without them. And why was Lee called “Light Horse Harry?” The editor doesn’t say. There are many other instances where a telling detail or a brief explanation would be most helpful.

Ed Southern is its editor. He has also edited another title in the series, “The “Jamestown Adventure: Accounts of the Virginia Colony, 1605-1614.” A former employee of Blair, Southern is now executive director of the North Carolina Writers' Network, which is based in Carrboro.

Did you know that if North Carolina militiamen had not thrown down their muskets and run away when the British charged their position at Guilford Courthouse, Gen. Greene would have won the battle, crushed the British army and ended the war a year earlier? It would have been Greensboro instead of Yorktown. So said Light Horse Harry. Interesting.

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