Re: redcoats and revolutionaries

["L. Bird" <pkeets@hotmail.com>]

>  I'll go for that one.  The approach that's forming up looks like the 
>British  Red Coats againsts the American Revolutionaries.  Guess who's 
>likely to win?  (At the risk of further annoying Dave.)
>   >>
>Ummm.. just to make sure you udnerstand this Keets, it was not the people's 
>militia that won the Rev War for us - though they helped.  Rather, it was a 
>standing European style Continental Army, trained by Prussian Baron Von 
>Steuben, that fought the British regulars toe to toe after 1777 that won 
>the war.
>
>Continental forces were augmented by militia in many battles, but the 
>militia could not stand in the face of superior British discipline and 
>British bayonets.  They usually fired one or two shots and bailed, leaving 
>the rest to the Continentals.

This is what made them an early example of guerrilla warriors, and the 
British an example of an administration fighting a war a long way from their 
own shores.  It may be true that the colonies managed to later muster an 
armed force equal to the British, but the model stands as an example of how 
not to fight a war.

keets

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