American Revolution

[Tab]

When the British troops sacked Washington they were very well behaved.
They only burnt government buildings and did not interfere with the local population, unlike the American troops that had invaded Canada while we were busy with Napoleon. The British troops had behaved so well the injured were taken into American homes and nursed back to health.

[Whitey]

I think it was funny that them yankees got slapped.

[WarC]

*A little more on-topic*

The Battle of New Orleans!

Grade-A British regulars up against Grade-A American regulars...Oh...and pirates...heh.

Doomed siege, though...Probably would have ended up differently on an open field.


They'd just as happily smack you and call you Yank, too, Whitey. Your no different than me in a foreigner's eyes, British or not!

[BenChug]

Wasn't that battle fought something like 3 months after the war had ended?

[WarC]

Yeah, true... That was like a shot after the buzzer, I guess.

[Smoke286]

Spitz.
You mention the role of the Frontier Rifleman as being overblown.
Well I tend to disagree.They were excellent shots(they had to be).
Bayonets were nearly never used and mostly discarded as useless.
The Brown Bess was a terribly inaccurate weapon,69cal.slow to load.
It was known as the pumpkin slinger.
The lighter,shorter 50 or 58cal Kentucky rifles were deadly in the hands of
what really were hunters.
Sorry I'm late with this post but Iv'e been having a little problem with my
puter of late.
Don't want to talk about it right now.Still in denial.
Ask Sticks."Orrible,It was just Orrible"
Wholley.

Some inaccuracies in your statement

1- They were better shots because they had rifles, most of the Militia units of the Royalist side were filled with the same frontiersmen and hunters as the Americans
2- Bayonets were quite useful in close action
3- All smooth bore muskets were inaccurate but much faster to reload then rifles
4- The British Ferguson Rifle was , being a breech loader much faster to reload then the American Pennsylvania rifles, but was in not available in large numbers
5- The great majority of the American army were armed with the same sort of smooth bore muskets as their enemy
6- The Redcoats could apparently fire more rounds per minute then most of the other armies in the world at the time. I'm sure you understand what significance the ability to fire four rounds per minute instead of three {this is also said to be the Royal Navy's main reason for its domination world wide at the time]

[Smoke286]

[quote="Tab"]When the British troops sacked Washington they were very well behaved.
They only burnt government buildings and did not interfere with the local population, unlike the American troops that had invaded Canada while we were busy with Napoleon. The British troops had behaved so well the injured were taken into American homes and nursed back to health.quote]

British troops were, as a whole very well behaved, as a result of the iron disipline they lived under

Royalist militia units less so, especially those who were driven out of their homes by their former neighbours. In many ways the American Revolutionary War was in reality America's first Civil War

[Smoke286]

http://csmid.com/

Just an example of one of the British units that [at least partially] was equiped with rifles

[Tab]

Now was the this war fought about taxes or had the American Colony grown to such size by then, that it felt it did not have enough control of it's management. The American people did ask for seats in Parliament at Westminster, and this was rejected. Which added fuel to fires of self rule, now the taxes where these spent in England or was much of it spent in America, just who paid for the Armies in America that had battled for years to keep those damn French from taking over, ports ,harbours and docks, all had to be paid for as well. Yes there where a large number of English people making a lot of money in America and it stayed that way until WW2 when every thing we owned in the States had to be sold to pay for our war. Now I agree king George was of his trolley after a while and he was not in control over these events, and things where managed for him until his death when the Regent took over.
Now the burning of the White House in 1812, this was a war that America started while we where tied up fighting Napoleon and they thought it would be a good time to annex Canada. Now there main complaint for this war that British ships of War would stop American ships and take what they thought where British sailors to do there duty on British ships. Now some of these America claimed where American citizens, but Britain claimed that iof they had been born in Britain then they where British even if they had moved to America. Now changing tack a bit for a comparison America did much the same thing during the Vietnam war, still thats another story. Back to 1812 America sent an Army and raped, looted and burnt Ottawa to such an extent the local population took up arms and inflicted a defeat on the Americans. A small fleet of British ships sailed up to Washington and captured the place. Now with all this talk about hate, and war, it is a common fact that all the British troops behaved very well in Washington to such an extent that the local population took in the British sick and wounded and nursed them.
When an old American General of great age took a pot shot at some of the British he was caught and court martialed and sentanced to death. A group of people from Washington appealed for him to be spared pointing out the good relations that had built up during the time that they had been here, and guess what, he was spared on the understanding that he was kept well away from any guns.
When the British came to leave to leave the only buildings that where burnt where the Government ones and not a single house was damaged. Also the only loot taken from the whare houses was any thing that could be used for military purposes. On the whole a very gentlemanly act and one that is not taught very well.

[dootybooty]

Getting back to the revolution rather than the war of 1812, I was taught about it in school, generaly along the lines of the Brits in America did not like being taxed by London. Lets be frank the revolution was a civil war fought overseas. One of the great annomalies for me is the fact that Flora MacDonald, she of Bonny Prince Charlie fame, helped raise a unit of loyalists to fight for the crown and when the war was lost went back to Scotland. It was also another Scot, Betsy Ross who sewed the first American Flag.
Two facts stand out historicaly, we did not have the man power and had to rely on German conscript mercenaries, and the French hopped on the bandwagon to undermine British influence. You didn't get Canada though!

[Longshot]

[quote="Tab"] On the whole a very gentlemanly act and one that is not taught very well.

Did you know that another gentlemanly act by the British saved General George Washington?
On 7 Sept. 1777, Major Patrick Ferguson, an Edinburgh born British Sharpshooter, was scouting with three other sharpshooters by Chadds Ford on the Brandywine River. There they saw two enemy officers on horseback approaching. One was dressed as a Hussar, the other looked very splendid on a bay horse and wearing a very large, cocked hat. This second male is believed to be Washington.
At first Ferguson was going to snipe them from cover, but he thought that to be a shameful, cowardly act and decided to step out in front of them and stop them. When he broke cover, the Hussar shouted a warning to his colleague who then turned and galloped off toward the American lines. Ferguson could not, as he said: "fire at the back of an unoffending individual who was acquitting himself coolly of his duty, and so I let him alone".
It was later established, that Washington was out that day dressed exactly as described, scouting in the same area as Ferguson, with only this Hussar for company.
Although there were no Hussar regiments at the Brandywine, the Continental Army had been recruiting foreign officers. One of these was a Polish cavalry commander who served as an aide de camp to Washington at Brandywine. He is most likely the Hussar seen with Washington.

[anglo-saxon]

Although there were no Hussar regiments at the Brandywine, the Continental Army had been recruiting foreign officers. One of these was a Polish cavalry commander who served as an aide de camp to Washington at Brandywine. He is most likely the Hussar seen with Washington.

The 66th Regiment of Foot, as perpetuated by the Royal Berkshire Regiment, the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment (Berkshire and Wiltishire), and now the RGBW (the last two being amalgamated entities), wore/wear an inverted red triangle behind their cap badge. This is from the battle of Brandywine Creek, where they executed the first silent night attack of the war, catching the rebels unaware and bayoneting many as they slept. The rebs thought this all very unsoldier-like and promised never to take a Brit prisoner again. The 66th, hearing this, sent a dispatch to the rebels, admitting to the attack and stating that they would be easily recognized in the field as they would, henceforth, wear a red hackle). That way, only men of the 66th would be summarily dealt with as promised by the rebels. Thus, the "Brandywine" flash, which eventually replaced the hackle, came into being.

The Americans starting revolting in the 18th century. There are those who would say they still are!

[snyder]

As for here our history is being manipulated for reasons I'm not sure also. We only teach the good now. In college we are required to read the works of Karl Marx, Lincoln, and Moa, and taught nothing of the constitution, and we are told our founders were evil, greedy men.

I was going back through old threads and reading them and found this. I thought I'd say that I got an history degree about 20 years ago from a public university infamous for its liberalism, and the founders were not treated as evil, greedy men in my classes. They were treated as political geniuses and far-sighted men of the Enlightenment. Their flaws weren't overlooked, but nor were they overstated.

The constitution and the preceding articles of confederation were examined in great detail, as they were in my public high school history classes taught in the 1970s. My biggest criticism of all that is that the internal social divisions within the colonies were underplayed. The revolutionary war was at least as much a civil war as the next civil war, and it's amazing that the whole thing held together at all. I think if people really understood this at a more fundamental level, they'd have more insight into why the founders compromised on slavery. They had to, or the colonies would have never come together. Movies and public TV specials have done a good job of bringing this out, at least for people who pay any attention to the subject.

As for Marx, et al, I took a political science class in which we focused on three thinkers. Marx for communism, Nietzsche for fascism, and Freud for the modern capitalist West. It was a great class, and Whitey I think you'd have been impressed because at my ultra-lib university no one was exactly praising Marx in that class. I only had one such professor, and I dropped his class after he kicked me out for loudly turning the pages of a newspaper during his excuse for a lecture.

Now how is this for reviving a thread?!

[Tab]

Now I might be drifting away from the point, but when look at the American Constution, and then compare it with the leaflets produced during the time of the English civil war, you can then see where they got all their idea's from.

[Guest]

Now I might be drifting away from the point, but when look at the American Constution, and then compare it with the leaflets produced during the time of the English civil war, you can then see where they got all their idea's from.

... umm, good point...FRANCE...