SCMtns
Member
Hi, THR,
I'm reading Everyday Life in Early America by David Freeman Hawke, and I just got to a part that I think a lot of highroaders might find interesting. Actually, y'all would probably like the whole book.
Anyway, here goes, in excerpts:
The early settlers saw at once that war in America would not be what it had been in Europe. They quickly learned to fight the Indian by his own rules. "God pleased to show us the vanity of our military skill in managing our arms after the Eropean mode," a New Englander said. "Now we are glad to learn the skulking way of war," and, he added (as if ashamed to have sunk to the Indian's level), "what God's end is in teaching us such a way of discipline I know not." They soon saw that the close order drill practiced on muster days was a useless tactic against Indian warriors... Instead they marched through the forest "at a wide distance from one another,... [as] this was an Indian custom to march thin and scatter." It became customary to put out scouts on the flanks to anticipate a surprise attack. Unnecessary talk was discouraged and smoking forbidden. At the first sign of attack the leader shouted "Tree all!" and all dove for cover...
As tactics and strategy changed, so too did equipment. According to Axtell, most of the accoutrements common in the British army-- "the long pikes, heavy matchlocks with rests, carriage cannon, brightly colored uniforms, ponderous supply trains, and female camp followers"-- vanished. A lighter, shorter musket, easier to carry through the forest, came into general use. The barrel was coated brown to prevent glinting. The men wore moccasins...and carried backpacks that were small and light, some thirty pounds lighter than those hoisted by a British soldier; they held blankets, field provisions, and perhaps an extra pair or two of mossasins. Body armor remained in use for many years, although worn mainly by officers who could afford it and who used it as much as a status symbol as for protection. Heavily padded coats and jackets replaced armor, and the men wore outfits that blended into the forest background, either buckskins or shirts and breeches dyed dark green. Expensive, awkward swords and sabers gave way to axes, hatchets, tomahawks, and scalping knives...
As in so many instances, the settlers kept the name and form of an old institution but otherwise changed it radically. The militia in America still drew its members from the local community... Members were still obliged to equip themselves. Officers, whether elected as in New England... or appointed as in the Chesapeake, usually came from the gentry. Muster days, as complaining ministers observed every year, continued to resemble a carnival. With these relics of the past, resemblance to the English model ended. The American version no longer comprised only the upper classes. All able-bodied men from 16 to 60 were required to serve. Behind the new assumption that all men had a duty to protect their community lay another that also broke with English tradition-- all men had the right to bear arms... Fear of the Indians outweighed fear of internal revolt...
The militia system had other flaws. It invariably failed to anticipate surprise attacks, the Indians' favorite and most successful weapon... Once alerted it could react swiftly-- Massachusetts Bay put 1200 men in the field within an hour or so after Indians raided a town thirty miles inland-- but in the field other weaknesses developed. No colony during the century developed an informed, forceful central command to direct operations over its various self-centered companies, nor did any produce experienced quartermasters to keep troops on the march supplied...
Nothing on earth-- no garrison or blockhouse, no militia, not even a group of trained mercenaries-- could reassure the inland settler except his gun, and even that did not always give dependable protection. One reason so many choice flowers died in the fields is that so many of them went out with flawed weapons. Even the relatively simple musket often needed repairs, and a locksmith who specialized in such work could seldom be found except in port towns that gave him enough trade to keep busy throughout the year. His craft called for considerable skill and training, and also a large outlay in stock. Robert F. Trent has printed the inventory of one who died in Boston in 1668. In addition to 212 pounds of iron, no minor investment, his shop held over a hundred various tools and pieces of equipment, among them some twenty different chisels, screw plates to make screws, a stock drill, a "block to unbreech guns," and a "windless on the block to pull the barrel of the gun free of a broken stock." The chances were fifty-fifty that without such a shop at hand a militiaman might carry to muster day and even into battle a musket that needed some kind of repair. And even if his weapon were in perfect shape, a shower of rain left him defenseless, for a musket would not fire in wet weather. Thus ill-prepared were the settlers for the string of French and Indian Wars that began in 1690 and lasted well into the eighteenth century.
I'm reading Everyday Life in Early America by David Freeman Hawke, and I just got to a part that I think a lot of highroaders might find interesting. Actually, y'all would probably like the whole book.
Anyway, here goes, in excerpts:
The early settlers saw at once that war in America would not be what it had been in Europe. They quickly learned to fight the Indian by his own rules. "God pleased to show us the vanity of our military skill in managing our arms after the Eropean mode," a New Englander said. "Now we are glad to learn the skulking way of war," and, he added (as if ashamed to have sunk to the Indian's level), "what God's end is in teaching us such a way of discipline I know not." They soon saw that the close order drill practiced on muster days was a useless tactic against Indian warriors... Instead they marched through the forest "at a wide distance from one another,... [as] this was an Indian custom to march thin and scatter." It became customary to put out scouts on the flanks to anticipate a surprise attack. Unnecessary talk was discouraged and smoking forbidden. At the first sign of attack the leader shouted "Tree all!" and all dove for cover...
As tactics and strategy changed, so too did equipment. According to Axtell, most of the accoutrements common in the British army-- "the long pikes, heavy matchlocks with rests, carriage cannon, brightly colored uniforms, ponderous supply trains, and female camp followers"-- vanished. A lighter, shorter musket, easier to carry through the forest, came into general use. The barrel was coated brown to prevent glinting. The men wore moccasins...and carried backpacks that were small and light, some thirty pounds lighter than those hoisted by a British soldier; they held blankets, field provisions, and perhaps an extra pair or two of mossasins. Body armor remained in use for many years, although worn mainly by officers who could afford it and who used it as much as a status symbol as for protection. Heavily padded coats and jackets replaced armor, and the men wore outfits that blended into the forest background, either buckskins or shirts and breeches dyed dark green. Expensive, awkward swords and sabers gave way to axes, hatchets, tomahawks, and scalping knives...
As in so many instances, the settlers kept the name and form of an old institution but otherwise changed it radically. The militia in America still drew its members from the local community... Members were still obliged to equip themselves. Officers, whether elected as in New England... or appointed as in the Chesapeake, usually came from the gentry. Muster days, as complaining ministers observed every year, continued to resemble a carnival. With these relics of the past, resemblance to the English model ended. The American version no longer comprised only the upper classes. All able-bodied men from 16 to 60 were required to serve. Behind the new assumption that all men had a duty to protect their community lay another that also broke with English tradition-- all men had the right to bear arms... Fear of the Indians outweighed fear of internal revolt...
The militia system had other flaws. It invariably failed to anticipate surprise attacks, the Indians' favorite and most successful weapon... Once alerted it could react swiftly-- Massachusetts Bay put 1200 men in the field within an hour or so after Indians raided a town thirty miles inland-- but in the field other weaknesses developed. No colony during the century developed an informed, forceful central command to direct operations over its various self-centered companies, nor did any produce experienced quartermasters to keep troops on the march supplied...
Nothing on earth-- no garrison or blockhouse, no militia, not even a group of trained mercenaries-- could reassure the inland settler except his gun, and even that did not always give dependable protection. One reason so many choice flowers died in the fields is that so many of them went out with flawed weapons. Even the relatively simple musket often needed repairs, and a locksmith who specialized in such work could seldom be found except in port towns that gave him enough trade to keep busy throughout the year. His craft called for considerable skill and training, and also a large outlay in stock. Robert F. Trent has printed the inventory of one who died in Boston in 1668. In addition to 212 pounds of iron, no minor investment, his shop held over a hundred various tools and pieces of equipment, among them some twenty different chisels, screw plates to make screws, a stock drill, a "block to unbreech guns," and a "windless on the block to pull the barrel of the gun free of a broken stock." The chances were fifty-fifty that without such a shop at hand a militiaman might carry to muster day and even into battle a musket that needed some kind of repair. And even if his weapon were in perfect shape, a shower of rain left him defenseless, for a musket would not fire in wet weather. Thus ill-prepared were the settlers for the string of French and Indian Wars that began in 1690 and lasted well into the eighteenth century.
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