Book Talks

“Backcountry Resistance: South Carolina’s Militia and the Fight for American Independence”

by Carl P. Borick

Thursday, November 19, 2026 | 7 p.m. (ET) | Virtual

In Backcountry Resistance, Carl P. Borick delivers a groundbreaking account of the citizen militia that defied British forces in South Carolina’s volatile Backcountry during the pivotal Southern campaign of the Revolutionary War. Focusing on rank-and-file militiamen, Borick explores how these ordinary men were recruited, armed, fed, and motivated. Drawing on underused pension records and state claims, he reconstructs their everyday realities and their battlefield experiences. He also examines the war’s devastating effects on civilians, including enslaved people and women, who played crucial roles in the struggle.

Carl P. Borick is director of the Charleston Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, and the author of “Relieve Us of This Burthen: American Prisoners of War in the Revolutionary South, 1780-1782” (USC Press, 2011) and “A Gallant Defense: The Siege of Charleston, 1780” (USC Press, 2012).

Register for the November 19 virtual Book Talk

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“Desert Empire: The 1862 New Mexico Campaign”

by Patrick Kelly-Fischer

Thursday, December 17, 2026 | 7 p.m. (ET) | Virtual

In “Desert Empire,” Emerging Civil War historian Patrick Kelly-Fischer tackle the overlooked New Mexico Campaign of 1862 by exploring the men, battles, and politics that shaped the course of the war in the Southwest and the future of the region.

Patrick Kelly-Fischer is a historian with Emerging Civil War. He graduated from Bard College in 2009 with a B.A. in Political Studies and began writing for Emerging Civil War in 2021.

Phillip S. Greenwalt was a Supervisory Park Ranger of the Shark Valley District of Everglades National Park, and a Historian-Park ranger at George Washington Birthplace National Monument and Thomas Stone National Historic Site.

Register for the December 17 virtual Book Talk

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