"Revolutionary War Military Tactics" Topic

"The popular image of military tactics during the American Revolutionary War is that the crafty colonists wore their buckskins and other camouflage, hid behind trees, and sniped at British soldiers marching in columns and wearing red coats with white crosses on the chest. The British, apparently, thought their military tactics were the envy of the world and more than a match for a bunch of amateur backwoods guerilla fighters…."
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professorbuzzkill.com/30844-2

Amicalement
Armand

Nobody who has read even a small amount about the war really believes that anymore. I hope, anyway.

Well, not since 2016, at any rate.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Some myths exist and persist for the sole purpose of being shot down by "experts", who then reveal that they're just writing for the sake of writing.

Is that your expert opinion?

I remember a story my dad told me. It is lunch time, in the 1960's, and while waitng in line at the cafeteria another worker notices that he is British. This gentleman than starts on about the plucky Yankee Doodles defeating the Evil Empire by sniping at them from behind trees etc… You know the story. Standing behind my dad was a Canadian who then laid into this gentleman about the War of 1812 and how the Yankees were defeated because they stood in lines, only to be shot to pieces by Canadian backwoodsmen hiding behind trees etc. Needless to say my dad was rather amused.

From The Book of the Continental Soldier by Harold Peterson, 20:

'Under von Steuben's guidance the Revolutionary War soldier became a first-class fighting man in the best European tradition. Contrary to popular tradition, he did not hide behind trees and stone walls to pot at enemy formations. With exception such as Kings Mountain and various routs, he met the British Army on its own terms in open fields and drawn up in line of battle. He learned to make savage bayonet charges…he charged with an unloaded weapon, relying solely on cold steel. By the end of the war the Continental was no longer just the citizen with a gun. He was a hardened campaigner…'

I always thought that the rifle/tree thing was an element of skirmishing and not battle proper, but then again, a lot of people only take in so much info, if any at all and leave it at that.

There was always a place for skirmishing…and the British were quite good at it, also.

The basis of the myth is probably based on Lexington and Concord, which was a real one-off.

New England is proud of their Minutemen. Yes, Lexington and Concord are probably the origin of the "myth".
Other examples might include Kings Mountain, Hand's retreat to Trenton.
But that's about it.

Are we doomed to refute this "myth" every 3 weeks until the end of eternity?
It seems like it gets resurrected, and refuted, as soon as it falls off the front page.

Let's give it a rest. There are better AWI topics to discuss.

No argument…