Volume 6 of the "Presidential Series" covers the eight-month period between 8 February and 24 October 1813, during which the United States continued its military struggle against Great Britain. The volume opens with newly appointed Secretary of War John Armstrong's memorandum on the spring campaign against Canada, recommending attacks on Kingston and York (Toronto). United States forces took York in late April, but humiliating defeats followed in June, leading Armstrong to replace Maj. Gen. Henry Dearborn as commander of the Northern army with Maj. Gen. James Wilkinson. In the fall, Wilkinson opted to bypass Kingston and march directly to Montreal, but illness, bad weather, and personnel problems dogged the campaign, which later ended in failure.

The nation faced financial and diplomatic challenges as well. With war expenses mounting, Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin kept the government solvent by negotiating a $16-million loan. A few months later, he sailed for St. Petersburg as a peace commissioner under the mediation offer of Alexander I of Russia, leaving the financial affairs of the nation to Navy Secretary William Jones. Early in August, however, Madison wrote Gallatin that the Senate had "mutilated the Mission to St Petersburg" by rejecting Gallatin's nomination as commissioner. The president spent the remainder of the period covered in this volume at Montpelier, regaining his health after a life-threatening bout of fever.

The volume also documents the United States' evolving relationship with Spain's American colonies, quarrels among U.S. consuls in France, rivalries within the Cabinet, and Oliver H. Perry's victory on Lake Erie. Access to people, places, and eventsdiscussed is facilitated by detailed annotation and a comprehensive index.

This volume continues the story of the American Revolution in the South. Many of the more than 800 documents vividly confirm Nathanael Greene's characterization of the ferocity of the war and the miseries it produced, and they highlight his efforts to end lawlessness and restore the authority of civil government. As the volume opens, Greene has broken off pursuit of a retreating Lord Cornwallis in North Carolina and enters South Carolina. Despite setbacks at Hobkirk's Hill and Ninety Six, Greene's troops regained control of most of South Carolina and Georgia within three months. Letters from Greene's subordinates trace the course of the war farther north in North Carolina and Virginia during the days leading to the climactic siege at Yorktown.

This new volume of The Papers of General Nathanael Greene continues the best and most-detailed study of the Revolutionary War in the South. More than 800 letters and orders chart the progress of Greene's army in South Carolina, from the battle of Eutaw Springs - the bloodiest battle of the Revolution - to the British pullback to Charleston. In July 1781, the British controlled large parts of South Carolina and Georgia, had a post in North Carolina, and maintained an army in Virginia. By early December, they held only the areas around Charleston and Savannah. The ability of Greene's beleaguered army to force this British retreat is the focus of this volume, which also documents Greene's attempts to rebuild the lower south's political and social fabric. In addition, this volume provides information on the siege of Yorktown, for although Greene was not directly involved, he received numerous reports from those on the scene in Virginia.

This volume continues the best and most detailed study of the Revolutionary War in the South. More than 780 documents illuminate a vital but largely overlooked phase of the war - the lengthy and turbulent period from allied victory at Yorktown until the final achievement of peace and American independence. By December of 1781, General Nathanael Greene's army had forced the British into retreating to Charleston, South Carolina. But in the lower South, in particular, the war was far from over. Greene's position as commander of the Southern Department involved him in nearly every aspect of the military, political, and economic life of the region during the last years of the war. Thus, his papers provide an overview not only of the war, but also of politics, the economy, and life in the South. In addition, the documents in this volume show Greene in a different light: the master strategist of earlier volumes has now given way to Greene as innovative military leader and politically astute general.