Guerrilla Warfare in Revolutionary War
Guerrilla Warfare in Revolutionary War Americans changed the rules of war during the American Revolution with their new military tactics of guerrilla warfare. In early 1777, General John Burgoyne was commissioned to lead a big army from Canada down Lake Champlain and the Hudson River Valley. During this expedition, Using highly skilled fighters and sharpshooters from the frontier, the American army was able to pick off all 400 of the British troops’ Native American scouts and about all of the British officers leaving the regiment of soldiers without any leadership or guidance. Eventually the battalion was forced back to the confines of the city of Boston. General Burgoyne later noted when proceeding through dense woodland, “The enemy is infinitely inferior to the King’s Troop in open space, and hardy combat, is well fitted by disposition and practice, for the stratagems of enterprises of Little War...upon the same principle must be a constant rule, in or near woods to place advanced sentries, where they may have a tree or some other defence to prevent their being taken off by a single marksman This new type of warfare was very affective because the British army was used to fighting on open battlefields.” For the undisciplined American soldier it was easier to fight because they did not attack the enemy in long lines, but instead by attacking in waves, killing soldiers and then retreating back into the woods to prepare for the next attack. Americans also began using a new type of musket that contains curved rifling on the inside of the barrel to help the bullet fly much farther and more accurate than the Redcoats’ muskets. This allowed the American army to develop a new means of assassinating generals and officers during battles to leave the infantry without any leadership or courage to keep fighting and avoid scattered retreats.