On Tuesday 19 November 2002 01:48 pm, Kevin Elliott wrote:
> Well, there nuggets and the larger truth... Rifles were widely used
> as sniper rifles by the Americans. They were commonly available
> (though expensive) because they are a far superior hunting tool than
> a smoothbore musket. The definition of a "Kentucky Rifle" is a long
> barreled _rifled_ musket. Much of their reputation came from the
> fact they were rifles and any rifle will shoot rings around a
> smoothbore.
That resolves the contradiction. We were using poorly trained soldiers, but
they were using supperior weopons and tactics.
> The british got VERY upset with us because of a tendency
> to shoot officers which was considered very bad "form". I believe it
> was common practice to hang anyone found armed with a rifle for what
> amounted to war crimes. But again, very poor rate of fire kept them
> from replacing the smoothbore.
This probably stemmed from the aristocratic culture of the times....?
> On the other hand, track the battles. The US lost most of the early
> engagements and for at least the first 2 years was doing very poorly.
> We succeeded in later battles because of improved training and
> discipline (part of the significance of Valley Forge was that it was
> used as a training ground that improved the general quality of troops
> immensely). Yorktown was a fairly traditional Napoleonic battle
> which we only one because French ships prevented Cornwallis from
> retreating. He was forced to surrender when it became clear that he
> couldn't break out of the American lines and that the French were
> more than willing to bring the whole town down around his ears from
> the coast.
Thanx for the history lesson. I admit, I'm not well educated in the era of
history.
--
Mike Diehl
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