The Americans would do a lot of feinting and the running into a swamp or something. And you mentioned that sniping into a large crowd wouldn't do much, which is why the American troops would mostly target officers or people in charge of supplies. The only other thing I can think that was unorthodox at the time were night raids. The American troops would sneak into the enemy camps at night, stab important people to death, then run away.

However despite all that the core American strategy was still in traditional line formations like you're talking about, a basic necessity of using smoothbore muskets that generate huge plumes of smoke. The only unorthodox thing I know about that is the Americans would send advance scouts to hide in trees or inside dirt mounds to harass the enemy formation as it was getting organized, as in, both sides were already getting into position to have a typical European style line formation battle, but the American side would have a couple of guys who'd start early.

Also I think most historians are of the opinion that unorthodox guerilla tactics were not what decided the American revolution. It was more of a problem of over-extended supply lines and the UK fighting multiple wars simultaneously.

[–] GalaxyBrain@hexbear.net 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

I'm kinda surprised even targeting officers etc would be effective enough to risk it just cause bad range and accuracy. I guess having a guy on a hill take a single shot and hope for the best before running away can be low enough risk in the right circumstances.

Were night raids unorthodox because in these circumstances it was more practical given that it was a civil war and the territory was relatively small and forested compared to say your average Napoleonic land battle or was it a rules of engagement kinda deal cause there was no electricity and everyone went to bed at the same time?

I foind the idea that guerilla tactics being a deciding factor in the American revolution to be deeply doubtful on its face. Both sides were badically the same guys but on different teams. British officers vs former British officers arent gonna think all that differently as far as doctrine goes. And war just like...wasnt done like that on any meaningful scale during that time and under that culture, it would be a weird exception and a huge deviation from standard doctrine. It would be like modern soldiers today wearing bright colors and firing in formation.

Edit: did just get an idea for making a certain section of the scale model scene mad. A few like to make battle replicas. Ill just photograph some smoke and post it as a battle. These nerds are sticklers for realism

[–] axont@hexbear.net 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Night raids were unorthodox because it was a huge risk with potentially no payoff. They were usually only done in Europe out of desperation is my understanding. Like you said, battles would become filled with impenetrable smoke. Night raids combine that with it being pitch black and you couldn't use drums to keep people together, since you know, trying to be sneaky. The bright colored uniforms also don't help since it's night.

I think the Americans only got away with night raids in the instances they did because of spy networks. Like the famous Christmas night raid was able to happen because Washington had a double agent cattle trader who was also friends with a British colonel. He would pretend to be 'captured' by the Americans, the escape and give false troop movement info to the British officers. I guess the British had fewer local assets.

[–] GalaxyBrain@hexbear.net 3 points 1 day ago

Makes sense. It would make sense you also wouldnt night raid without a good chance of getting results cause they would do it back and then both you and your armies are tired on either side for the whole thing.

[–] TommyCatkins@hexbear.net 6 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Americans did have special units with rifled flintlocks. The rifles were just way more expensive to manufacture and took longer to reload as you had to jam the misketball down the barrel, fighting the rifling all the way. But they were popular with frontiersmen, and so there were rifled units that would attempt to snipe and ambush British columns. The tactic was successful enough that the British would have their own rifled units during the Napoleonic wars, most famously in the guerrilla campaigns during the peninsular war in Spain.

[–] GalaxyBrain@hexbear.net 5 points 21 hours ago

Neat! I wish more war history guys would explains things exactly how you just did. Theyre usually gun nerds and assume everyone else is.