You're listening to an airwave media podcast. Hello and thank you for joining the American Revolution.

This week episode 258, Gates takes command. In the spring of 1780 the revolution in the south seemed to be unravel.

The British capture of Savannah in late 1778 with a relatively small force made manifest the vulnerability of

the southern colonies. Both sides have largely ignored the southern theater

deploying few soldiers and a B-team of commanding officers.

Southern politicians typically refuse to cooperate with the Continental commanders.

Generals Lachlan McIntosh and Robert Howe, both Southerners themselves, have been transferred

north because of their inability to work well with the Southern governors and other civilian leaders.

Washington eventually sent General Benjamin Lincoln of Massachusetts

to command the southern army in hopes of creating a credible army

to secure the region and retake Georgia.

Instead, the British captured Lincoln and his entire army at Charleston, South Carolina

after a short siege led by British General Sir Henry Clinton.

Following that, both sides predicted that North Carolina and perhaps even Virginia

might soon fall to British control. With the fall of Charleston and the surrender of

Lincoln's Army, the highest ranking officer in the South was Major General Johann de Kogg.

The German-born officer who had served his lifetime in the French

Army before coming to America with the Marquis de Lafayette. Up until this time, Dacalm's fast military experience in Europe had not really been put to the

test in America. He did not receive his commission until after the

Philadelphia campaign had ended in late 1777.

He was in Philadelphia during the Battle of Monmouth, although he suffered through the winter

encampments at Valley Forge and Morristown, serving as a division

...