Redcoats on the Frontier

Throughout the American Revolutionary War, Great Britain's 8th Regiment of Foot garrisoned frontier posts along the Canadian-American border. Their purpose, to guard the strategic lands and multi-billion-dollar resources of the upper Midwest and the western Great Lakes region. From frontier posts like Niagara, Detroit, and Michilimackinac, the 8th's exceptional and heroic military duties took them as far west as St. Louis (in modern-day Missouri) and as far south as Vincennes (in modern-day Indiana) where, aided by their Native American allies, they attempted to stop the spread of colonial western migration into the far-flung settlements of Kentucky and the Illinois Country. Had the 8th's expeditions been successful, the entire tenor of the war in the West would have been different, affecting the outcome of the American Revolution, perhaps even securing British victory in the Americas.

Redcoats on the Frontier: A Study of the King's 8th Regiment in North America, first written by William L. Potter in 1988 as a master's thesis in history, has circulated for years among individuals with a keen desire to 'learn the facts' about Great Britain's 8th Regiment of Foot and their almost two decades in North America. This re-edited version enhances Potter's study of original 18th-century records with period portraiture and maps as well as personal insights about Bill's life. It is a 'must have' volume for the research libraries of reenactors, historians, archaeologists and persons interested in 18th-century Great Lakes, British, and American Revolutionary War history.