Former Navy officer spotlights the Revolution’s Southern campaign in new novel

Ray Deptula’s new book, Can’t Find My Way Home, reexamines the American Revolution through the brutal Southern campaign that helped decide the war. The novel follows two separated Continental Army stragglers after Camden, tying a little-known chapter of history to questions of loyalty, survival and moral duty.

Why it matters: - Ray Deptula’s new novel focuses on the American Revolution’s Southern campaign, a part of the war that is often overshadowed by Lexington, Yorktown and the fighting in New England. - The book frames the Battle of Camden and the chaos in South Carolina as pivotal to the war’s outcome. - The story connects battlefield history with themes of loyalty, survival and human cost.

What happened: - Former U.S. Naval Officer Ray Deptula released Can’t Find My Way Home, the second book in his Those Damned Yankees series. - The novel follows British deserter Jack Halliday and Custis, an enslaved man, after they are separated from the Continental Army following the Battle of Camden. - The book is set against the violence of South Carolina, where rival militias and local divisions turned neighbors against one another. - Deptula says the novel centers on Jack’s moral obligation to protect Custis because Custis is his friend.

The details: - The story builds from the harsh winter of 1780-81 at Washington’s army encampment in New Jersey. - Jack Halliday and Custis then move into the spring campaign and the Battle of Camden. - The Continental forces are decimated at Camden, undercutting American hopes of driving Britain from the southern provinces. - The pair is left stranded in a volatile region where trust is scarce and Custis’ status as property intensifies the stakes. - The title comes from their desperate effort to survive and find a way home. - Deptula says the book is based on meticulous historical research and the actual sequence of Revolutionary War events. - The novel is published by Speaking Volumes and has a release date of June 30, 2026. - The ISBN-13 is 979-8890224170. - The book is available from Amazon. - More information is available at Ray Deptula Author.

Between the lines: - Deptula is using fiction to pull attention toward a less familiar theater of the Revolution, where the war’s brutality was intensified by slavery, divided loyalties and local militias. - The Jack Halliday and Custis relationship gives the war a more personal lens, shifting the focus from strategy to moral survival. - The book’s argument is that the Revolution’s outcome was not determined only by famous northern milestones.

What’s next: - Deptula is positioning the novel as part of a broader series, which suggests additional Revolutionary War stories may follow. - Readers interested in the Southern campaign can expect the book to serve as both a war narrative and a historical reminder of how the conflict spread beyond the more familiar battlefields.

The bottom line: - Can’t Find My Way Home uses historical fiction to bring the Revolution’s Southern campaign out of the margins and back into view.