The 8th Virginia Book List

10/10/2023

Here is a list of printed works that will help readers learn more about Virginia in the Revolutionary War. A separate list of recommended free online content is available here. Essays originating on this website are not included, but a list of "essential posts" (in historical order) is provided at the top as a separate item.

The list below has an intentional focus on Virginia and the places where the 8th Virginia served, but exceptional works such as the autobiography of Joseph Plumb Martin and Robert Wright's The Continental Army are also included. Some selections are unique in their category while others represent just one of dozens of works on a subject. In most cases the listed items represent the most recent work on a subject. All researchers stands on the shoulders of the historians who preceded them. No disparagement is meant toward the many excellent works not included here. Books should be in print unless otherwise noted. This list will be updated as new items appear or when older works come to my attention. Merchant links are intentionally not provided.

--Gabe Neville

Essential Posts

Introductions to the Revolutionary War

Michael Cecere, March to Independence: the Revolutionary War in the Southern Colonies, 1775-1776 (Yardley: Westholme, 2021). This is an important corrective to the traditional Boston- and Philadelphia-centric narrative of the war's early days, providing overviews of events in each of the southern colonies including East Florida, which did not join the rebellion.
Edward G. Lengel (ed.), The 10 Key Campaigns of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: Regnery, 2020). Though not a history of the whole war, this is an excellent introduction for anyone who wants to get right to the good parts of the story. This is a ten-chapter book featuring ten short accounts of the ten most important campaigns of the war written by ten of the best Revolutionary War historians writing today. It is good history and a fun read.
Joseph Plumb Martin, Diary of a Revolutionary War Soldier (various editions). This is the only book on the list that has nothing to do with Virginia, but it is so good and so valuable it needs to be recommended anyway. It is the only full-length, well-written autobiography written by an enlisted soldier. It is a delightful book that should be required reading in every high school. Used editions may be titled Private Yankee Doodle.
Robert K. Wright, Jr., The Continental Army, (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1983). This is a well-researched, matter-of-fact study of the evolution of the Continental Army with attention to unit origination, state-level contributions, training, and changes over time. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to really understand the Continental Army. It was produced by the U.S. Army's Center for Military History after the Bicentennial. It is still available from the Government Printing Office but may be easier to find used.

Late Colonial Virginia

Glenn F. Williams, Dunmore’s War: The Last Conflict of America’s Colonial Era (Yardley, Pa: Westholme, 2012). Dunmore's War was the last colonial Indian war and was personally led by Virginia's last royal governor. A large number of 8th Virginia soldiers saw their first large-scale combat experience in this conflict and it explains a lot about their mindset and attitudes. This well-researched book, along with James Rife's master's thesis on the same subject, are important background for Virginia - especially western Virginia - in the Revolution.
Warren R. Hofstra, The Planting of New Virginia: Settlement and Landscape in the Shenandoah Valley (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2004). This is the best history of the settlement, economy, and culture of the Shenandoah Valley in the 18th century. Seven of the 8th Virginia's ten companies came from the Shenandoah Valley for contiguous counties.
David Preston, Braddock’s Defeat: The Battle of Monongahela and the Road to Revolution (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015). This is the most recent study of the event that reverberated for decades in the west and deeply impacted the lives of many 8th Virginia soldiers even though few if any were there for it.
Parke Rouse, Jr., The Great Wagon Road: from Philadelphia to the South (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973). The vast majority of Shenandoah Valley and south-Appalachian settlers came down the Great Wagon Road from Philadelphia after immigrating from Ireland and Germany. The Great Philadelphia Wagon Road extended all the way to Georgia and the Wilderness Road Branched off of it through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky. That makes it at least as important as the Oregon Trail. It is also important here because it ran right through most of the counties that raised companies for the 8th Virginia.
Patrick Spero, Frontier Rebels: The Fight for Independence in the American West (New York: W.W. Norton, 2018). This might be the best work to date when it comes to correcting the Boston-centric history of the war we all learned in school. If armed resistance to the King's soldiers constitutes rebellion, the Revolution arguably started in western Pennsylvania in 1769. Two of the 8th Virginia's companies were raised in Western Pennsylvania, which was claimed by Virginia at the time.
Klaus Wust, The Virginia Germans (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1969). Like the Scotch-Irish, large numbers of Germans emigrated down the Wagon Road from Pennsylvania to the Shenandoah Valley and many of their sons became soldiers in the 8th Virginia Regiment. This is their story.

Virginia in the Revolution

Michael A. McDonnell, The Politics of War: Race, Class and Conflict in Revolutionary Virginia (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2007). More up-to-date and a bit more academic than Selby's Revolutionary Virginia, this book satisfies modern academia's fascination with race and class while also producing very good history.
John E. Selby, The Revolution in Virginia, 1775-1783 (Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg, 1988). Selby's book is still regarded as the standard history of Virginia in the Revolutionary War. It provides a straightforward narrative of the war.

The War in 1776

Edwin C. Bearss, The Battle of Sullivan's Island and the Capture of Fort Moultrie (National Park Service, 1968). This is an older work, authored by the legendary National Park Service historian Ed Bearss for the Park Service. Though perhaps dated in some ways, it still provides a good narrative. Readers may want to pair it with Mark Maloy's book on Charleston listed below.
William L. Kidder, Ten Crucial Days: Washington’s Vision for Victory Unfolds (Lawrence Twp., NJ: Knox Press, 2018). Published 14 years after David Hackett Fischer's Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington's Crossing, Kidder's book has the benefit not only of Fischer's research but also of the remarkable work done by the Battle of Princeton Mapping Project. It is, therefore, the most accurate book-length account of the Ten Crucial Days.

The War in 1777

Michael C. Harris, Brandywine: A Military History of the Battle that Lost Philadelphia but Saved America, September 11, 1777 (El Dorado Hills, Ca.: Savas Beatie, 2014). Building on important earlier works by Tom McGuire and others, this is the most recent full treatment of the Battle of Brandywine.
Michael C. Harris, Germantown: A Military History of the Battle for Philadelphia, October 4, 1777 (El Dorado Hills, Ca.: Savas Beatie, 2020). Like his book on Brandywine, Michael Harris's book on Germantown is the latest full treatment and includes some important corrections to our understanding of what happened there.

The War in 1778

Mark Edward Lender and Gary Wheeler Stone, Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2017). The Battle of Monmouth was the 8th Virginia's last engagement before being folded into the 4th Virginia and ceasing to exist.

The Later War and the Western Theater

Colin G. Calloway, The Shawnees and the War for America (New York: Penguin, 2007). The Shawnee were for decades the primary nemeses of settlers living on Virginia's northwest frontier.
Hammon, Neal and Richard Taylor, Virginia’s Western War, 1775-1786 (Mechanicsburg, Pa: Stackpole Books, 2002). The war in the west did not end in 1783. Though it has been criticized for some small inaccuracies, this book provides an overview of Kentucky settlement and the war in the west through 1786.

Officer Biographies

Michael Cecere, A Brave, Active and Intrepid Soldier: Lieutenant Colonel Richard Campbell of the Virginia Continental Line (Berwyn Heights, MD: Heritage Books, 2020). 8th Virginia captain Richard Campbell continued on in service, promoted twice, until he died in battle in 1781. He was Virginia's second-highest-ranking officer to die in combat.
Michael Cecere, Peter Muhlenberg, A Virginia Officer of the Continental Line (Yardley, Pa: Westholme Publishing, 2020). The most recent biography of the 8th Virginia's first colonel celebrates his real achievements and corrects some mythology.
Michael Cecere, Second to No Man But the Commander in Chief, Hugh Mercer (Berwyn Heights, Md: Heritage Books, 2015). From his immigration from Scotland to the French and Indian War and his final service at Princeton, Gen. Hugh Mercer's career parallels the lives of several 8th Virginia men. Mercer was a leading martyr in the American cause and should be better remembered.
Harry M. Ward, Adam Stephen and the Cause of American Liberty (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1989). Not only did Adam Stephen command the 8th Virginia as a major general at Brandywine and Germantown, he was also a neighbor to many of its men in the Shenandoah Valley.
Harry M. Ward, Charles Scott and the ‘Spirit of ’76’ (Charlottesville, University Press of Virginia, 1988). Another Virginian who rose from private to general, and then to governor of Kentucky, Scott was the 8th Virginia's brigadier general in 1777 and 1778.
John W. Wayland, The Bowmans: A Pioneering Family of Virginia, Kentucky, and the Northwest Territory (1943; repr. Harrisonburg: C.J. Carrier, 1974). 8th Virginia lieutenant colonel and lieutenant colonel Abraham Bowman is remembered in this book about his service and that of his three equally notable brothers. (Out of print.)
Albert Louis Zambone, Daniel Morgan: A Revolutionary Life (Yardley: Westholme, 2018). Several 8th Virginia men were detached to serve in Morgan's Rifles in 1777. Like Adam Stephen, Morgan lived in the Shenandoah Valley and many 8th Virginia men knew him very well as a neighbor.

After the War

Gwynne Tuell Potts, George Rogers Clark and William Croghan (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2020). 8th Virginia captain William Croghan married the sister of George Rogers Clark and they lived and the two men worked closely together in Kentucky after the war.

Battlefield Guides

Phillip S. Greenwalt, The Winter That Won the War: The Winter Encampment at Valley Forge, 1777-1778 (El Dorado Hills, Ca.: Savas Beatie, 2021). The enlistments of the 8th Virginia's original volunteers expired near the end of the Valley Forge encampment. New recruits and those who reenlisted continued on. Part of the Emerging Revolutionary War series.
William R. Griffith IV, A Handsome Flogging: The Battle Monmouth, June 28, 1778 (El Dorado Hills, Ca.: Savas Beatie, 2020). Monmouth was the last engagement for the original 8th Virginia regiment. Part of the Emerging Revolutionary War series.
Mark Maloy, To the Last Extremity: The Battles for Charleston, 1776-1782 (El Dorado Hills, Ca.: Savas Beatie, 2023). Charleston was the site of many 8th Virginia soldiers' first and last major engagements: the Battle of Sullivan's Island in 1776 and the Siege of Charleston in 1780. Part of the Emerging Revolutionary War series.
Mark Maloy: Victory or Death, the Battles of Trenton and Princeton, December 25, 1776-January 3, 1777 (El Dorado Hills, Ca.: Savas Beatie, 2018). About 100 men from the 8th Virginia participated in the Ten Crucial Days as part of detachment serving with the 1st Virginia Regiment. Part of the Emerging Revolutionary War series.

Reference

John H. Gwathmey, Historical Register of Virginians in the Revolution (Richmond: Dietz Press, 1938). This book comes close to achieving the impossible job of creating a comprehensive list of all Virginians known to have fought in the Revolution. It wisely makes no attempt to reconcile duplicate or similar names, necessarily resulting in individual men being listed repeatedly. It gives only very basic information: names, ranks, units and dates. The book is best for Continental and State soldiers for whom rosters were kept and for whom postwar benefits were available. Minute and militia service are spotty at best. The work is available as a two-volume reprint, but is not worth the expense for researchers interested in individual soldiers. Genealogists should look for it in a library.
E.M. Sanchez-Saavedra, Guide to Virginia Military Organizations in the Revolution, 1774-1787 (Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1978). Though it contains some errors and omissions, this book produced during the Bicentennial remains the best reference for Virginia military units in the war, covering Continental, State, minute, volunteer, and militia. It includes lists of offers (captains and above) and very brief unit histories.