The book title is a mouthful: “The Virginia Continental Line in the Revolution’s Southern Campaign” by John C. Settle.
At 156 pages, not including the notes section, it contains everything you could want to know about the state 250 years ago.
Settle wrote the narrative, incorporating historical paintings and drawings of key players, maps, and photographs of battlefields and monuments.
He started his career after earning a B.A. in history from Bridgewater College in 2019. After college, he worked as a military interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg for three years. Today, he teaches U.S. history and civics at Powhatan Middle School in Powhatan, Virginia. He has written articles for the “Journal of the American Revolution” and the “Fluvanna Historical Society.”
Yes. The young man loves history, and it shows in this book.
Learning about the Revolutionary War
If you are a regular reader of Travel Gumbo, you will know I traveled to Virginia in April. My focus was colonial times, pre-Revolution, and the war.

To dig deeper than spending an hour at a site or having dinner at Half Way House tavern in rural Richmond, where the Marquis de La Fayette was headquartered during the war, or touring St. John’s Church in Richmond, where Patrick Henry gave his famous “Give me liberty or give me death” speech.
According to the publisher and author notes, the Virginian’s contributions during the late period of the American Revolution, specifically with the Virginia Line, did not receive the same level of publicity as other units. Errors or misunderstandings regarding the nature of the battalions and their service were recorded.
“Following the disasters of Charleston and Waxhaws, officers such as Peter Muhlenberg, Nathanael Greene, and the Baron de Steuben were left with the difficult task of rebuilding the ranks. This proved to be challenging. Uniformed in blue jackets and later called ‘the regiment of Hell-fired-blues of the Virginia Line,’ the reformed Continentals would reinforce that name in campaigns such as Cowpens, Guilford Courthouse, and Yorktown,” from publisher’s notes.
Using primary sources including historical firsthand accounts, the author gives a voice to those honorable veterans who Americans may have forgotten.
Chapter titles range from Officers and Men of the Virginia Line, 1780–83, and A Summer of Marching to The Road to Victory.
With the nation’s 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026, this is a great time to read this and other books and articles about the war.
This book, along with other excellent historical narratives, is available at Arcadia Publishing and Amazon.