A01=Guy Chet
American battlefield traditions
Atlantic world military history
Author_Guy Chet
battlefield leadership studies
battlefield tactics evolution
British imperial military influence
British troop deployments
campaign planning analysis
Category=JWK
Category=JWKF
Category=NHK
colonial defense systems
colonial drilling practices
colonial military politics
colonial warfare analysis
comparative warfare history
ea
early American military history
early modern battlefield discipline
eighteenth century military campaigns
empire and warfare studies
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
European battlefield doctrine
fort and garrison history
frontier combat myths
frontier conflict studies
frontier defense networks
frontier fortification history
frontier skirmish narratives
historical military doctrine
imperial command structures
imperial military administration
imperial strategy overseas
Indigenous conflict history
irregular fighting misconceptions
irregular warfare debates
logistics and supply in colonial armies
martial law in colonial society
military bureaucracy development
military failures and reforms
military organization in colonies
musket and firearm tactics
Native-settler military encounters
officer training traditions
professional army development
professionalization of colonial armies
seventeenth century battles
siege warfare in early America
strategic planning in early America
traditional European formations
training and discipline in early forces
transatlantic military culture
transnational military influence
war and governance in colonies
warfare in New England history
Product details
- ISBN 9781558493827
- Weight: 320g
- Dimensions: 163 x 225mm
- Publication Date: 30 Apr 2003
- Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Challenges longstanding myths about the nature of warfare in early America; A study of military tactics and strategy before the War of Independence, this book reexamines the conquest of the North American wilderness and its native peoples by colonial settlers. Historians have long believed that the peculiar conditions of the New World, coupled with the success of Indians tactics, forced the colonists to abandon traditional European methods of warfare and to develop a new ""American"" style of combat. By combining firearms with guerrilla-like native tactics, colonial commanders were able not only to subdue their Indian adversaries but eventually to prevail against more conventionally trained British forces during the American Revolution. Yet upon closer scrutiny, this common understanding of early American warfare turns out to be more myth than reality. As Guy Chet reveals, clashes between colonial and Indian forces during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries did not lead to a reevaluation and transformation of conventional military doctrine. On the contrary, the poor performance of the settlers during King Philip's War (1675-76) and King William's War (1689-1697) prompted colonial magistrates to address the shortcomings of their military forces through a greater reliance on British troops and imperial administrators. Thus, as the eighteenth century wore on, growing military success in the New England colonies reflected an increasing degree of British planning, administration, participation, and command. The colonies' military and political leadership, Chet argues, never rejected the time-tested principles of European warfare, and even during the American War of Independence, the republic's military leadership looked to Europe for guidance in the art of combat.
