ROAD TRIP--Oriskany Battlefield

[lenny flank]

Photos from a visit to the Oriskany Battlefield in NY.  Oriskany was an interesting Revolutionary War battle for several reasons. In terms of percent of troops engaged, it had the highest casualty rate of any battle in the war. It also illustrated a fact which is often forgotten about the Revolutionary War: it was also a civil war. Only about one-third of the American colonists supported independence from Britain, and another one-third were Loyalists who supported the British (the rest just wanted all the fighting to end). Among those who were divided were the local Native American tribes, particularly the Iroquois Confederation, some of which supported the Brits and some of which supported the colonials. At Oriskany, there were barely any British troops at all: one one side were Hessians and Mohawks allied with the British Crown along with units of Loyalist militia from the area, and on the other side were colonial militias, also from the area. It was, literally, brother against brother.

"Ziggy the Snail Shell" parked at the monument.

More monuments

An overview of the battlefield

More at my blog:
https://lennyflank.wordpress.com/2017/07/21/oriskany-battlefield/

 

[Ballenxj]

Photos from a visit to the Oriskany Battlefield in NY.  Oriskany was an interesting Revolutionary War battle for several reasons. In terms of percent of troops engaged, it had the highest casualty rate of any battle in the war. It also illustrated a fact which is often forgotten about the Revolutionary War: it was also a civil war. Only about one-third of the American colonists supported independence from Britain, and another one-third were Loyalists who supported the British (the rest just wanted all the fighting to end). Among those who were divided were the local Native American tribes, particularly the Iroquois Confederation, some of which supported the Brits and some of which supported the colonials. At Oriskany, there were barely any British troops at all: one one side were Hessians and Mohawks allied with the British Crown along with units of Loyalist militia from the area, and on the other side were colonial militias, also from the area. It was, literally, brother against brother.

Interesting bits of history. Brother against Brother seemed to be a theme also carried over into The Civil War, in which more Americans were killed than in all the other wars put together.
Hopefully History will not repeat itself, but I fear it may.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

Anyone who wants to read a good book, try OLIVER WISWELL by Kenneth Roberts (who also wrote the masterful RABBLE IN ARMS).  It's the story of the American Revolution, as seen by an American Loyalist who fought for the Crown.

It's interesting.  Tens of thousands of Loyalists formed military units that could have easily been used to defeat the American Rebels, but the British didn't really respect them or trust them, so they squandered them in garrison duty on Long Island and other places.

In the end, we didn't really win the war, it's just that the British lost it through bad strategy.  Like Vietnam, two hundred years later, it dragged on so long that the British simply lost the will to keep fighting it.

 

[lenny flank]

Interesting bits of history. Brother against Brother seemed to be a theme also carried over into The Civil War, in which more Americans were killed than in all the other wars put together.
Hopefully History will not repeat itself, but I fear it may.

Meh, people have been telling the Second Civil War is coming since the 50's and the John Birchers.

I stopped listening to them.

Though with some folks it's hard for me to tell if it's a fear or a hope..........

 

[lenny flank]

Anyone who wants to read a good book, try OLIVER WISWELL by Kenneth Roberts (who also wrote the masterful RABBLE IN ARMS).  It's the story of the American Revolution, as seen by an American Loyalist who fought for the Crown.

It's interesting.  Tens of thousands of Loyalists formed military units that could have easily been used to defeat the American Rebels, but the British didn't really respect them or trust them, so they squandered them in garrison duty on Long Island and other places.

In the end, we didn't really win the war, it's just that the British lost it through bad strategy.  Like Vietnam, two hundred years later, it dragged on so long that the British simply lost the will to keep fighting it.

I just finished watching a BBC multi-part series about the American revolution. It's interesting in which ways the Brit viewpoint differs from ours.

As for strategy, yes, I agree---the American revolution was, in many ways, a precursor to the Vietnam war, with the roles reversed. The VC won using the same methods we did (and the Brits lost for the same reasons we did).

History doesn't actually repeat itself, but it often rhymes.