Otho Holland Williams in the American Revolution by John H. Beakes (review)

From the Broadway breakout sensation Hamiltonto the best seller list, the Founding Fathers are all the rage at the moment. Yet beyond the pantheon of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin, few Americans could name another member of the Revolutionary generation. Six men, no matter how great, could not have staged a revolution. Who were their compatriots? This is the question John H. Beakes Jr. wants to answer, one forgotten founder at a time. In his third biography of a lesser-known Revolutionary, Beakes turns his pen to the life of Marylander Otho Holland Williams. This deeply researched narrative portrays Williams not unlike Alexander Hamilton, as a bright and dynamic young man who rose from obscurity and tragedy to play an indispensable role in America’s revolutionary struggle.

Orphaned at the age of thirteen, Williams, who possessed the compelling combination of good looks, above-average height, and a clever mind, soon caught the attention of powerful patrons in his native Maryland. But it was the imperial crisis, and the war it ignited, that gave Williams a chance to make his name. An early volunteer for the Continental army, Williams served with distinction throughout the contest, earning accolades from Congress for his role in the southern campaigns. After the war, he parlayed his military experience into a lucrative administrative post, which he held until his untimely death in 1794. His is a story worth telling.

Beakes’s book, however, is not a conventional biography. From the outset, the author is clear that his interest is in Williams the soldier. Beakes devotes over two-thirds of his study to Williams’s role in the Carolina campaigns of 1780–1782. These are events he knows well from his earlier biographies of Henry Lee and John Eager Howard. In the book’s strongest chapter, Beakes sets up his narrative with a detailed analysis of the geographic, ecological, and social histories of the southern states. Rivers are not often noted in general histories of the war, and Beakes’s discussion of the importance of waterways for the movement of troops and matériel is insightful. Additionally, Beakes’s narration of the campaigns’ various battles and skirmishes is fast paced and approachable for nonspecialists. As the story of one man’s fight for American independence, the book succeeds admirably, but it fails to live up to its potential to broaden our vision of the American Revolution.

Despite some promising early gestures, the book suffers from a critical lack of context. The reader learns precious little about Williams’s place in the political, economic, and social worlds of colonial and early republican Maryland. For example, Beakes glosses over Williams’s career as a slave owner on the grounds that the relationship between the Founders and slavery is “unpleasant to contemplate” (p. 293). Beakes tells us that Williams was a Mason but includes nothing about the political salience of Freemasonry during the age of revolutions. Beakes is on firmer ground during the war years, but the reader still yearns for more contextual information about life in the Continental army. We often hear from Washington and other senior officers but rarely from the enlisted men who composed the bulk of the army. Beakes compounds the bias within his source base by ignoring the excellent scholarship on the social and cultural history of the Continental army. Instead of a nuanced presentation, Beakes gives the impression that elite men like Williams secured independence by their bravery in battle and their fortitude to discipline social inferiors. These contextual shortcomings notwithstanding, the book is a highly readable retelling of the Revolutionary War through the eyes of one of its most active participants.