The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Book 4. Warfare and Diplomacy. Part 13: A Nation of Minute Men

Chapter 53.  Defensive War and Naive Diplomacy

• Age of limited warfare
• corresponding European period to American colonial era
• restraints of war made them less destructive and decisive
• The games of war
• battles took place on large, open fields
• customary rules for formations obeyed
• forces set up like chess pieces at opening of battle
• violations
• sneak attacks
• irregular warfare
• unexpected and unheralded tactics
• Stratification of war
• task of warriors
• functions were as separate from teh common man as those of cleric or barrister
• ranks usually drawn from aristocracy
• military engagements
• away from populace
• rules neatly and scrupulously followed
• Indians' differing view of war
• struck without warning
• omnipresent
• nightly terror in the remote areas
• continued their threat into late 19th century
• threats of invasion of European powers
• garrison house
• common dwelling and refuge during Indian raids
• whole community huddled together here in times of danger

 

Source

• Indian summer
• absence of Indian threat in winter
• unexpected warm weather in fall prolonged Indian threat
• colonial warfare
• all men were soldiers since all lived on the "battlefield"
• backwoods no place for squeamish
• boys' pastimes early prepared them for defense
• institution for the citizenry
• defense of the hearth against omnipresent and merciless enemy
• European wars barely intelligible
• no military games played here
• improvement of the rifle
• myth of the omnipresent American marksman
• potent psychological warfare
• tactics unnerved rigidly trained (British) professional army

 Chapter 54.  Colonial Militia and the Myth of Preparedness

• need for an armed citizenry
• food-gathering
• self-defense
• omnipresent threat of war
• skirmishing type of warfare
• scattered encounters by small groups and individuals acting on their own
• professional soldier's mass drill, precision, and discipline were useless
• militia system development in New England
• every able-bodied man was to be armed
• no uniform
• unprofessional practice of electing own officers
• informality between officers and men
• weakened force in combat
• reminded soldiers they were fighting for themselves
• desertion was common when service became inconvenient
• adopted to slaveholding society in South
• dispersed military function into entire white community
• military leadership fell upon the civilian leaders of community ("Kentucky Colonels")
• America relied on armed citizenry rather than professional army
• dissolving distinctions and monopoly of European life
• minute men
• myth of a constantly prepared citizenry
• explains why Americans are so eager to lay down their arms once the conflict has ended
• desire for a quick return to peace
• lacked communications suitable for war
• no central command
• forces fell into decay after war

Chapter 55.  Home Rule and Colonial Isolation

• America thought of military defense in the most direct and simplest terms
• no men marching off to battle
• man standing with neighbors defending his village from attack
• coastal defense
• remote areas refused to assist
• fully manned guardships from England carried out this task
• inter-colony cooperation
• practically nil
• Virginia sent scouts north to check movements of hostile French and Indians but never asked immediately threatened New York or New England if they needed assistance
• most communities offered excuses of why each dared not or could not send militia outside its borders
• French and Indian war
• pervasive localism prevent British from being able to combine colonial troops
• colonies contributed as little as possible
• colonists feared sending their young men into a regular army where they might be sent to distant places
• War of Independence
• clash of how, where and when men should fight
• problems of particularist feelings plagued them here as they did during French and Indian war

Chapter 56.  The Unprofessional Soldier

• Lord Loudoun
• attempted to control and centralize American  military actively starting in 1756
• the more he learned about the colonial troops, the less he relied on them
• with his professional soldier's eye, he saw much that horrified him
• life of provincial militiaman
• free and easy compared to regulars
• no punishment
• came and went as they pleased
• problems that plagued Loudoun, plagued Washington
• series of wars from New England to middle colonies to the South
• small army made more effective and dispersed militia more effective
• impossible to overcome local pride
• did what he could to harness the men in a common cause
• All American armies competed against each other for men, officers, rank, and glory
• short-term enlistments
• sometimes as little as three months
• fear of professional standing army
• assumption that army would be superfluous after the war was over
• men went home just as they were learning their duties
• numerous defeats can be explained by transient character of army
• Washington's handicaps
• unreliability of men
• lack of discipline
• hastily gathered military ranks
• large-scale planning impossible
• commonplace desertions
• how and why did America win the war?
• despite bleak story so far, there were numerous acts of heroism, courage, and sacrifice
• unorthodox imagination of amateur American generals contrasting sharply with rigidity of British professionals
• British simply gave up -- very likely
• in first four years of Revolution, the 4 largest towns (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston) had fallen to British and become occupied
• no jugular to cut
• American center was everywhere and no where
• crucial aid of French
• at end of war, troops quickly dispersed
• story of actual administration of army
• dismal and discreditable
• almost unprecedented in annals of war
• American tradition of turning military success into political career was born