WAGING WAR IN AMERICA
◗ Edited by Don N. Hagist ◗ Helion & Company (2023) ◗ £25.00 ◗ 216 pages (softback) ◗ ISBN:9781804513460 ◗ helion.co.uk
Number 120 in Helion’s From Reason to Revolution 1721-1815 series offers nine papers examining some of the challenges faced by the nations involved in the American Revolutionary War. Four of these papers were presented at the Helion ‘From Reason to Revolution’ conference in 2022. The papers vary in length from sixteen to thirty pages; the majority are about twenty pages. References are given as footnotes and the sources are presented at the end of each paper. A three-page index appears at the end of the book, which is subtitled:
Operational Challenges of Five Armies during the American Revolution.
There are fifteen black and white illustrations, including reproductions of contemporary maps, drawings of soldiers and photographs of surviving artefacts; two modern maps, one of the Gulf of Mexico and another showing British West Florida and Spanish Louisiana; and ten tables of statistics relating to state regiments and unit strengths.
The first paper, by Paul Knight, examines the British Army PreWar Training Objectives and their Suitability for Operations, 1755-1777.
Then Alexander S. Burns discusses
‘Hessian’ Tactics in the Context of Military Europe to show that, contrary to popular belief, the Subsidientruppen had begun to develop skirmishing systems during the Seven Years’ War, but that their Flanqueurs were drawn from the line infantry companies and not from light infantry and grenadier companies as was the case in the British Army.
Krysten Blackstone considers What Patterns of Mutiny Tell Us About Morale in the Continental Army. The Loyalist Militia of New York are described in To Do the Duty of Soldiers in Every Respect by Todd W. Braisted. Robbie MacNiven discusses The Tactical and Strategic Impact of Massacres on the Frontier during the American Revolution.
‘The pleasure of their number’ by John U. Rees explains how “most state militias divided males, ages 16 to 50, into classes by company, county or district, then called out (drafted) one or several of a county’s classes for service ranging from weeks to months… Having served the allotted time, the men returned home, and another class took their place.” He then examines state efforts resulting from the first Congressionally authorised United States army draft, the effect on troop strength, and soldiers’ recollections of their service.
‘La Marcha Galvez: Spanish Planning, Logistics and Grit on the Road to Pensacola, 1779-1780’, describing the background to the campaign that led to “the longest siege ever recorded on North American soils to that date,” is by Joshua Provan, the author of Every Hazard and Fatigue: The Siege of Pensacola, 1781, also published by Helion.
Robert A. Selig explains the reasons for French involvement in the American war, primarily “to attain the weakening of English power” rather than any sympathy with the rebels’ ideology, as Louis XVI stated he
“disliked the precedent of one monarchy giving support to a republican insurrection against a legitimate monarchy.” This paper examines the French Army reforms 1763-1776, the troops selected for the expedition to America, military-civilian relations, recruitment and desertion; it gives only a brief outline of French operations in America.
Finally, Don N. Hagist examines the trial proceedings of some courts martial to discover what they reveal about the nature of warfare in the American Revolution.
Wargamers who specialise in studying and recreating the American Revolutionary War will find much to interest them in this book.