The American Tactics of the Revolutionary War

Most of Europe thought that the British with their im mense amount of capital, soldiers and supplies would heart frustrate the American resistance in the American revolutionary war with let on more(prenominal) of an ef meet. However the Patriots realized, from their earliest difficulties, to trespass on the enemys weaknesses. Guerrilla warfare and a strategy that emanated from the ability to manipulate events to their own benefit enabled the Americans to defeat the seemingly more powerful British. The Americans suffered great abuse from their mother country.The British primed(p) upon the Americans big(p) taxes between the years 1764 to the middle of 1776. They weed much(prenominal) taxes in the ice lolly roleplay, Townshend Act, Tea Act, the Intolerable Acts and many other acts. These acts solely e verywhere the course of the years destroyed practically of the faith that Americans had in the British government. The greater component of the population thought the Br itish were inadequate rulers and that they could do a much disclose job in ruling themselves. The Americans were tired of the Quartering Act which allow British troops be ho utilize in their own homes.They didnt love housing British troops so that their families could be spied upon or fork up their children raped. The to the lowest degree the Americans thought they deserved was the right to prolong a image in Parliament and the right to settle the land over the Appalachian Mountains. If the farmers could have more land to work on, the Americans could have a redundancy of food to ship to other countries creating a better economy for the American people. Over the course of close twenty-five years the Americans sent over 500 bills to the British House Of Trade trying to repeal the economical acts that Britain laid down upon them.The Americans besides seek to convince the British to let them have the ability to trade with other countries. If the British would have allowed thi s the park people of American would have been doing better economically the percent of scummy people would have been lowered greatly and the average income would have gone(p) up a great deal. The case it would have gone up so much is that Britain controlled the prices of products. The British patch upd how much they would buy a product for from the Americans and fool them ii or three times as much to buy it back.All the American people really cute was to be manageed properly. As Thomas Paine said in public Sense the British treated the Americans like an abusive mother would treat her child. Due to the economic hardships the Americans suffered they knew that they were button to face many problems in the war. The Americans knew that the British had a larger supply of men ranging from more experienced generals to more soldiers. The British had such a surplus of income from all of their colonies that they were able prosecute and supply mercenaries from Germany to come and h old in America.They had a stronger navy and a lot more artillery than the Americans had. The Americans faced many other dis favors such as lack of guns, ammunition, food, clothing, and most of all they were heavily outnumbered by men. The British had most advantages except for three main things. The beginning(a) of all the British had a harder time put up their supply line because they were so far a route from any major base. Their main head quarter was on Long Island. The British had a difficult time setting up a supply line outside of innovative York and New Jersey to feed, clothe, and keep in contact with their men.The second disadvantage was that the American generals knew the land and terrain where they were combat a lot better because the British generals did. The American normals knew how to deal with certain weather issues and turned it to their advantage. The Americans could plan out strategies based on land and terrain rather than sheer numbers, which is how the Bri tish tried to deal with the patriots. The third and probably one of the most important British disadvantages that they faced was that the Patriots had more desire to win.The soldiers knew that they were defending their land, their families, and they were protecting their desires. The British soldiers were rouseing for what most of them considered to be nonhing. Most of the British soldiers were tired of fighting in America and wanted to go home and see their families or create and have a family. The Americans at the beginning of the war tried a certain style of warfare known as Jomini warfare. The both enemies would decide when to have a betrothal and attack each other. The two enemies would charge at each other, shoot and hope that the basic strategy that was intend at the beginning would hold out.Much less strategy was used and involved in a battle such as this. The altogether problem with this style of warfare for the Americans was that in certain battles the British someti mes outnumbered them four to one. One such battle that proved that the Americans could not beat the British using European warfare was in the competitiveness of Brandywine. capital letter was trying to keep the British from overtaking Philadelphia and at least harbor the Continental Congress time to leave Philadelphia before they were attacked. chapiter with a force of 11,000 men thought he could take on popular Howe.Howe divided his regular army and over took capital of the United States with a flanking maneuver and pressure Washington to retreat. Washington had lost to the highest degree a thousand men. This battle proved to Washington how he needed a strategy that would not have them going into a man to man combat smudge where numbers were the main deciding factor. He tried to overtake common Howe at Germantown in fog by sending half of his army to the backside of the town and half to the front side of the town. The army failed to sustain properly so Washington lost the battle of Germantown however it prevented Howe not to have another assault on Philadelphia that year.Even though Washington lost this battle it was a victory for him personally as a commander and for the army. It proved to the Americans how they could not face the British in shoot man to man combat and forced them to form new methods to fight the British so that they could survive. The Americans created new strategies in order to overmaster their enemies and capitalize on their weaknesses. The native people coined this new strategy called guerrilla warfare. The primer of this style of warfare is to quickly attack your enemy and run a musical mode.The Americans cautiously selected their battleground and time of attack as much as workable in guerrilla warfare so that they could have every advantage possible so that they could have a chance to win. dickens such instances where the time of day and choice of terrain were the complete reasons for British defeat were at Stony fate and at Paulus Hook. The battle at Stony Point took habitation on the night of July fifteenth and ended the morning of July sixteenth. Washington assigned Mad Anthony Wayne to this attack. Wayne had 1,350 men that were given to him for this attack.He set his men in two tight lines and marched towards the citadel in and camouflaged by the night darkness. The first men to raid the fort attacked with their bayonets. The British fort soon went into chaos and surrendered very quickly. In total this battle court the Americans 15 lives, they killed 63 British soldiers, and world(a) Clinton was forced to surrender the fort to the Americans. Another battle that was won by time of day and terrain was in Paulus Hook, New Jersey. harry Lee took a small squad and attacked the two hundred men post. He attacked at dawn and caught the British completely murder guard and shocked them.He killed or captured almost everybody at the fort. He retreated with everyone within two hours of the attack t o make sure no British reinforcements arrived. There were many different guerilla warfare styles and strategies over the course of the revolutionary war. One such strategy was to have two rows of riflemen fire and then run away. The British would then try to grab them and the troops would be lead into a trap waiting for them. Two of the best, and most successful, uses of this strategy were at the Battle of battle of Cowpens and the Battle at Guilford Court.The Battle of Cowpens physically took place on January 17 but was set up between January 2,1781 and the day of the actual battle on January 17. The battle of Cowpens was a major battle of the war against the British for conquest as much as morals. Previous to the battle command Greene had separated his army of about 1,700 into two divisions. His army would have 1,100 and popular Morgan would have about 600 men. global Cornwallis thought this to be a very foolish move and sent out Banastre Trarleton, one of the most direful Br itish officers with 1,100 men.Morgan knew he would lose against Trarleton at his present so he traveled to Cowpens South Carolina to wait for the onslaught that they knew was coming. On the way to Cowpens Morgan picked up enough men to almost evenly watch the British man for man. He knew that Trarleton would attack frontally so he prepared a strategy that would be able to handle it. He knew and planned on the fact that his militia would retreat at first sign of charge so he laid out a strategy that would take this into account. He had his militia stand in two rows. All of the militia that were in the rows were instructed to fire twice and leave.This strategy worked better then Morgan could have ever planned. His two rows of men, totaling about 400 men knocked back and completely destroyed the first British charge and then the militia retreated. Leaving his other men to charge at the British, ordinary Morgan completely humiliated Trarleton. Morgan had killed or captured more than t hree fourths of his force. Trarleton had only take flight with 140 horsemen. The same strategy was implemented at the battle at Guilford Court. British General Cornwallis wanted revenge on General Morgan for what he did to the British at Cowpens.So Cornwallis had his army of 2,500 men trail General Morgans army who chose to go north after their victory and rejoin with General Greenes army. He trailed their army for nearly two months and after losing at least 500 men trailing Morgan and Greene, he obdurate to go in a complete circle back to Hillsborough. There General Nathan Greene was waiting for him. He had applied their previous strategy in the battle at Cowpens to this battle. General Greene started with 2,000 men after the Battle at Cowpens and had increased his numbers up to over 4,500 men.He inflexible to place a good number of his militia in two onward lines and the continental take time off of his army in a third row. He called Colonel Washington to protect his left fla nk and Light Horse Harry Lee to protect his right flank. After the quick attack Greene decided to leave and not pursue a fight. He knew that the losses that they would have suffered would not have been worth the fight but during this battle they killed about 300 British troops. This battle at Guilford Court caused Cornwallis to retreat all the way back to Wilmington and then to Virginia where the demise of the British was.Another reason the Americans won certain battles over the British army was that the British did not take the American resistance with total seriousness causing them to do some stupid things do to poor judgement. One example of a battle when the British lost due to their stupidity was in the Battle at Bennington. The British were heading towards Vermont to obtain horses, food, and other supplies to aid the German mercenaries who had been without horses for a great length of time. Lieutenant Colonel Fredrich Baum was instructed not to risk heavy losses but to scare a nd despoil the Vermonters.Baum left his camp with about 700 men and two cannons, which was thought to be more than enough to fight any small resistance that they might face. His first defiance of his orders was when Baum encountered a force of 200 men sent by Brigadier General John Stark. After the battle he was informed that these men were part of a militia force gathering at Bennington. He decided to press towards Bennington and destroy the force, even though it went against his orders again. Baum then marched towards Bennington.On his way there Baum saw two contingents of men going towards his rear and presumed that they were Tories that were going to flank the enemy and didnt give them a second thought after seeing them. When Baum approached Bennington, Stark order his men in front to charge, at the same time the two contingents of men already behind Baum also attack him and Baum was massacred. If Baum had taken any care as to even cerebrate of the contingents traveling behind h im he could have mayhap beaten the Americans at Bennington. But because of his disobedience of orders and his ignorance he lost the battle.The British, with all their money, men, supplies, and power couldnt control what little the Americans had. The Patriots realized, from their earliest difficulties, to capitalize on the enemys weakness. The Americans devised new tactics to reduce the British in their traditional Jomini style of warfare. The Americans used all that they possibly had to beat British. What drove the Americans to create these new strategies, though, was their desire their desire to overcome the British is what gave the colonial fighters their true advantage during the American Revolutionary War.