The Last Men Standing: The 8th Virginia Regiment in the American Revolution

The strong survived. Nearly 800 men followed the famous ‘fighting parson,’ Colonel Peter Muhlenberg, into the Continental Army in 1776. Few of them remained at the end of the war. Meticulously researched and accurately told, this is the story of the Last Men Standing.

In colonial times, thousands of German and Irish immigrants settled in Virginia’s western reaches. The 8th Virginia Regiment was conceived as a way to recruit them. Men from Pittsburgh to Tennessee were collected into 10 rifle companies and sent into some of the hardest service of the war. Only a few remained for the final victory at Yorktown.

Historians once said The Last Men Standing could not be written. Neville was challenged by a librarian at the David Library of the American Revolution to uncover the story. ‘It’s out there,’ the librarian said. ‘You just have to find it.’ The Last Men Standing is the result of many years of research in distant archives, small museums, private collections, and other sources. Neville likens the project to a jigsaw puzzle or a treasure hunt. The Last Men Standing traces the lives of immigrant children from the terrors of the French and Indian War, through the Revolution, to the settlement of the American frontier. Historians will appreciate Neville’s use of little-known sources, attention to neglected incidents, and reinterpretation of major events at Sullivan’s Island, Germantown, and Monmouth. Every reader will enjoy the story.