Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Location: Born in L.A. - NYC is Second Home - Rustbelt is Home Base
1,607 posts, read 1,084,706 times
Reputation: 1372
Advertisements
No cars, no communications other than Paul Revere. Just a bunch of patriots and their squirrel guns. Unbelievable that we beat a super power like England in our backwards state of being.
No cars, no communications other than Paul Revere. Just a bunch of patriots and their squirrel guns. Unbelievable that we beat a super power like England in our backwards state of being.
Actually much of the leadership in the Continental army were former officers in the British army. Even a number of the non-com were soldiers for a time as well. We were not the backwoods huckleberries your thinking.
It's a wonder they didn't all freeze to death. Very poorly equipped for severe cold.
But there were battles where they just stood out in the open and shot at each other. I think the Native Americans helped us out a bit with our technique.
Talk to the North Vietnamese or maybe the Afghanistan Rebels. They will show you how.
at least in the case of the north Vietnamese... they were willing to sacrifice their entire population.....few societies are willing to do that............
at least in the case of the north Vietnamese... they were willing to sacrifice their entire population.....few societies are willing to do that............
I wouldn't go that far either. I would venture to say that there was a good 1/3 opposed to the fighting. Another 1/3 of the population that were the real driving force and they did get a good portion of that last 1/3 to buy in to it to fill in the ranks. It is just the law of numbers.
BTW thank you for your service. I wasn't old enough to join while we were in Vietnam. I did have some friends that did go and a few from my high school didn't make it back.
No cars, no communications other than Paul Revere. Just a bunch of patriots and their squirrel guns. Unbelievable that we beat a super power like England in our backwards state of being.
Absolutely not unbelievable at all. "Just a bunch of Patriots and their squirrel guns" succeeded in every war that they have fought on behalf of their new found country and that's really what counts in the beginning as in the end.
Many emigrant settlers to America were of the Scots-Irish (Ulster-Scots) persuasion and after their many years of struggle they came to America for the opportunity of freedom from England, religious persecution and poverty. They were worthy opponents of anyone who might take them.
Still to this day they are here and over many generations of their descendants have made immense contributions to America. We don't really hear much about them unless we're actually looking for it and as their proud nature indicates they have rarely identified themselves as Scots/Scotch-Irish but rather and proudly as Americans, first and foremost. Also, over the years some have confused them with 'the Irish" which is not the case at all. None of this name the country of origin/American, American was more than enough for them.
The Scots-Irish: The Thirteenth Tribe
With the outbreak of the Revolution in 1775 the Scots-Irish, in interesting contrast to many of their Scottish cousins, were among the most determined adherents of the rebel cause. Their frontier skills were particularly useful in destroying Burgoyne’s army in the Saratoga campaign; and George Washington was even moved to say that if the cause was lost everywhere else he would take a last stand among the Scots-Irish of his native Virginia. Serving in the British Army, Captain Johann Henricks, one of the much despised ‘Hessians’, wrote in frustration ‘Call it not an American rebellion, it is nothing more than an Irish-Scotch Presbyterian Rebellion.’ It was their toughness, virility and sense of divine mission that was to help give shape to a new nation, supplying it with such diverse heroes as Davy Crocket and Andrew Jackson. They were indeed God’s frontiersmen, the real historical embodiment of the lost tribe of Israel.
Just a bunch of patriots and their squirrel guns. Unbelievable that we beat a super power like England..
Not just a superpower, but the superpower.
I'd submit that the British Empire was the most powerful empire in human history. The American Revolution was one of the most significant military upsets/evictions (my opinion)..
I also think Washington is one of the underappreciated revolutionaries of human history. His legacy (as a success) seems to be taken for granted, but he really was leading a David against a Goliath.
Peace.
Taverns and news papers were the common forms of mass communication of those days. Just see what happened with Thomas Paines's common sense and the taverns.
If you think the war was fought by a bunch of patriots with squirrel guns, you have a profound lack of understanding of the soldiers, equipment and drill of the Continental army, nor do you understand the strategy of the British Army, or the significant monetary and military assistance provided by the French army and navy, etc., etc. It is not hard to educate yourself on a topic on which so much has been written.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.