I just finished reading this and thought that some here may be interested.
"True for the Cause of Liberty: The Second Spartan Regiment in the American Revolution."
by Oscar Gilbert, Catherine Gilbert.
This is the same husband and wife team that wrote the Osprey "American Militiamen in the AWI" and "Cowpens" books.
In fact, the Osprey Cowpens book is sort of "True For the Cause Of Liberty" light.
The newer text appears to contain material that was probably cut from the Osprey book, due to space considerations.
Quite a bit of the same stories appear in both books, word for word, which is a drawback.
However, this is an excellent book, detailing the back country Tory/Whig AWI battles in graphic detail.
The book is extremely well researched and documented, with footnotes and sources listed throughout.
The Gilbert's focus on the Second Spartan Regiment, a Partisan band that fought in almost every major engagement in the South. They follow the unit through the war, in chronological order.
Accounts are taken from diaries, pension applications, oral history and eyewitness accounts. It weaves a fascinating picture of the brutality of the War in the South.
The battles are described from several different points of view, using the participants own words to tell the story.
It makes for enjoyable reading.
The book is nicely laid out, with clear sections to quickly find a source or description of a minor (or major) engagement.
Plenty of lesser known battles and skirmishes are covered in addition to the accounts of Cowpens, Kings Mountain and GCH.
I really enjoyed this book and have begun reading it again because I'm sure I missed things the first time around.
The authors relied on Babbits, a bit, but you can tell that the wife (Catherine) is an outstanding researcher. Everything is backed up and the source identified. Many
times, multiple sources are identified.
The husband Ed (Oscar), was a Marine Tank Officer and has written several Osprey titles, concerning Tank Warfare.
I would be interested to hear anyone else's opinion of this work. I highly recommend it to anyone who has even a passing interest in the War in the South.
Now, does anyone here have any insight into, or information about, the Second Spartans or the Little River Regiment?
I have the 1 st and 2 nd Spartans and LRR all painted and based and now I need flags. Nothing fancy, maybe an existing image with SPARTANS or LRR added.
I'm really wondering if any of these militias had a flag or a symbol. These were not small groups. Their ranks sometimes swelled into the hundreds of men, so they must had some sort of symbol to represent them.
Any ideas out there?
paints brigs for the British fleet.
