About This Book

The Loyalists who supported the British during the American Revolution have frequently been neglected in accounts of that conflict. Nevertheless, Loyalists made significant efforts to assist British forces in restoring royal control of the thirteen colonies. This was especially true in South Carolina, where backcountry Loyalists under almost-forgotten leaders such as Joseph Robinson and Euan McLaurin challenged the Revolutionary movement in 1775. Although their initial efforts were unsuccessful, Robinson, McLaurin, and hundreds of their followers eventually made their way to British East Florida, where they organized into a provincial regiment called the South Carolina Royalists. Operating in concert with British efforts, the Royalists were part of many notable actions from 1778 to 1781, including the defenses of East Florida and Savannah, Georgia, and the battles of Briar Creek, Stono Ferry, Musgrove’s Mill, and Hobkirk’s Hill. A second provincial regiment created in 1780, Major John Harrison’s South Carolina Rangers, saw considerably action in operations against partisans under Francis Marion. When the British were forced to evacuate their backcountry posts in 1781, the Royalists, Rangers, and three troops of Provincial Light Dragoons raised earlier in the year withdrew first to Charleston and then East Florida. From there, many went to Canada at the war’s end, with others dispersing to different British colonies to begin new lives after their strenuous but unsuccessful effort on behalf of king and country.
In South Carolina Provincials: Loyalists in British Service During the American Revolution, historian Jim Piecuch provide the first comprehensive history of those South Carolinians who took up arms to assist the British during their attempt to quell the rebellion in the South. Based on primary source research including records rarely consulted, the result provides a much clearer picture of the American Revolution at the local level in Georgia, Florida, and the Carolinas.

Jim Piecuch earned his BA and MA degrees at the University of New Hampshire and his PhD at the College of William & Mary. He is a former history professor and has written several articles on colonial and Revolutionary history. He is also the author of several books, including The Battle of Camden: A Documentary History (History Press, 2006), Three Peoples, One King: Loyalists, Indians, and Slaves in the Revolutionary South (University of South Carolina Press, 2008), Cavalry of the American Revolution (Westholme, 2012), and General Nathanael Greene and the American Revolution in the South, co-authored with Gregory Massey (University of South Carolina Press, 2012).

Praise for South Carolina Provincials:

“At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, the British could have entertained no hope of quashing a revolt stretching the entire Atlantic seaboard without seriously increasing the size of its relatively small peace-time army. A part of that increase was expected to come from America itself, its Loyalist population, those residents who sided with the King’s government. To put the most useful of these troops on a proper footing, the British created the ‘Provincial Establishment,’ in effect creating American regulars fighting against the Continental Army. Every province (or state) contributed volunteers to these corps. In this volume, author Jim Piecuch examines the role of those Provincials raised among the Loyalist South Carolinians. From 1778-1783, these groups, particularly the South Carolina Royalists, fought in some of the bloodiest battles against the likes of Nathanael Greene, Francis Marion and Thomas Sumter. The reward, for those that survived, would be confiscated property and exile. South Carolinaa Provincials tells the often neglected story of these soldiers and their families.”—Todd Braisted, Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies and author of Grand Forage 1778: The Battleground Around New York City

“[Piecuch has] produced a detailed, well researched and comprehensive account of the service of South Carolina’s Loyalist Provincial units. His text serves as a welcome addition to documenting the contributions of these units and placing them in the larger context of the southern theater.”—Journal of the American Revolution