Guerrilla Conflict Before the Cold War

This book examines (1) the neglected but decisive role played by guerrillas in the Carolinas in 1780 and 1781, which led to the disastrous retreat of Cornwallis into Yorktown; (2) the 1793 uprisings in western France against the Revolutionary regime, whose conduct foreshadowed Nazi policies during World War II; (3) the French occupation of Spain from 1808 to 1814, from which the name "guerrilla" derives, and where the Napoleonic Empire suffered its most fatal wound; and (4) guerrilla campaigns in the American Civil War, explaining why Lee's surrender in 1865 failed to unleash the massive guerrilla outbreak feared by Lincoln and Grant. The concluding section compares the experiences of the French in Spain to those of the Soviets in Afghanistan, and the British in the Carolinas to the Americans in Vietnam.