Battle Tactics of the American Revolution

by Robbie MacNiven, Adam Hook (Illustrator)

Overview

Featuring specially commissioned artwork, this absorbing study investigates the various participants' battlefield tactics, casting light on how tactical theory and battlefield experience shaped the conduct of battle in the American Revolution.

The American Revolution presented a series of unique tactical challenges to its competing factions. For Britain, the Army would be forced to re-learn many of the lessons from the Seven Years' War. After the debacle of Concord and Bunker Hill, the British implemented a range of changes throughout the Army, including the modification of accepted tactical doctrine. Additionally, the British formed alliances with various independent German states. The soldiers they provided thus answered to different armies. How much their tactics adapted during the war, therefore varied from state to state.

The Continental Army was founded in 1775 and was initially heavily styled on its British opponents. That began to change in 1778 thanks to the efforts of Prussian officer Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben. Following their formal alliance with the colonies in 1778, France deployed military assets to North America. French officers also provided tactical advice to the Continental Army, and vice versa, particularly when they worked together successfully during the siege of Yorktown in 1781.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472845450
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	06/01/2021
Series:	Elite
Pages:	64
Product dimensions:	7.25(w) x 9.70(h) x 0.15(d)

About the Author

Robbie MacNiven is a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh, working on a thesis that deals with massacres and violence during the American Revolutionary War. He has an MLitt in War Studies from the University of Glasgow and an MA in joint History and English Language from the University of Edinburgh. Outside of academia he also writes for Military History Monthly, and spends summers working on the Learning Team for the National Trust for Scotland at their Culloden battlefield visitor centro. He has also had seven speculative fiction novels published.

Adam Hook studied graphic design and began his work as an illustrator in 1983. He specializes in detailed historical reconstructions, and has illustrated Osprey titles on subjects as diverse as the Aztecs, the Ancient Greeks, Roman battle tactics, several 19th-century American subjects, the modern Chinese Army, and a number of books in the Fortress series. His work features in exhibitions and publications throughout the world. He lives in East Sussex, UK.

Table of Contents

Introduction 4

The British Army 6

Linear tactics

Reality and modifications in America

Musketry

The bayonet

Grenadiers and light infantry

Cavalry

Artillery

Loyalists

Irregular warfare and Native American allies

The Continental Army 25

Organization and reform

Standardized drill and Steuben's manual

Linear warfare

Defensive tactics

Musketry and the rifle

The bayonet

Militia

State troops

Cavalry

Artillery

German State Armies 46

Hessian organization

Tactical limitations in America

Other German states

Cavalry Artillery

Jäger

The French Army 54

Assault columns

Cavalry

Artillery

Bibliography 62

Index 64