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Most school children learn a bit about the American Revolution, probably including the beginning of the war at Lexington and Concord, Washington crossing the Delaware and the Battle of Trenton, Valley Forge, and perhaps the victory over Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. There is a lot more to the story! In particular, in the later part of the war, around 1779 to 1781, the war in the north stalled to a halt and most of the action moved to the southern colonies. We who live in the northern United States rarely learn about this part of the war, with important battles such as King’s Mountain, Guilford Court House, and Cowpens (the battlefields have been preserved by the National Park Service and are fascinating to visit). In fact, the climactic battle of Yorktown was caused by the American Army in the south chasing Cornwallis north, with Washington coming south to finish trapping the British in Yorktown.
That leads us to Manly Wade Wellman’s four-part juvenile historical novel series covering this aspect of the American Revolution, told through the viewpoint of the young soldier, Zach Harper. People who choose to begin reading any of Manly Wade Wellman’s many juvenile historical novels are in for a delightful time. These stories are historically accurate, exciting and realistic, with a firm Christian worldview and no questionable language or incidents. These novels, for early middle school and higher, are composed of several series and a number of stand-alone stories. Wellman’s Revolutionary War in the South series of whom Zach Harper is the hero, is composed of four novels, published from 1961 to 1963: (1) Rifles at Ramsour’s Mill, (2) Battle for King’s Mountain, (3) Clash on the Catawba, and (4) The South Fork Rangers. These four books essentially tell the story of the Revolutionary War in the South, with historical figures interacting with Zach Harper and others who serve as scouts for the American Army. Highly recommended for middle school and higher readers and as a literary supplement to a unit study on the American Revolution.
Manly Wade Wellman (1903-1986) was an interesting American writer. He was born in the country of Angola in Africa, the son of a medical officer. The family then moved to America, where Wellman got a college degree in journalism in 1926. He and his wife lived for the last several decades of his life in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Wellman wrote for many different genres – comic books, mysteries, science fiction, and stories in which his heroes fought evil in the supernatural realm. Today, he is best remembered for his delightful stories and novels about Silver John, a wandering minstrel with a silver-stringed guitar who travels through the Appalachian regions and fights supernatural evil known only from whispered folk tales. During the time of his career, he also had a tremendous interest in American history, particularly of the Carolina areas, and so wrote many wonderful juvenile historical novels, which I will be reviewing from time to time.