Nor the Battle to the Strong - A Novel of the American Revolution in the South (Hardcover)

A sweeping narrative covering a little known but crucial period of the Revolutionary War, "Nor the Battle to the Strong" tells the separate but ultimately intertwined stories of two compelling characters. Major General Nathanael Greene, Rhode Island-born, Quaker-bred commander of the Southern Continental Army, conducts an arduous campaign to reduce a series of British posts in South Carolina during the fateful summer of 1781, while, in Virginia, Private James Johnson, Scottish immigrant and runaway indentured servant, serves as a Continental infantryman in the manoeuvring of Lafayette's army against Cornwallis.Recruited into the dragoon service, Johnson travels South and joins Greene's army in time for the battle of Eutaw Springs, one of the bloodiest actions of the war. The contrasting perspectives of Greene and Johnson give the reader a vivid understanding of the American Revolution, both from the command level and through the eyes of the ordinary soldier. The novel probes our nation's earliest history with a post-911 sensibility. What values animated those who founded the United States? Are we the unworthy inheritors of their noble legacy? Or are we - and were they - merely human; and is it the purpose of history to put our humanity constantly to the test?