Getting to Know GW (8): The War and the Troops

The Revolutionary War has been called a bloodless affair, an assertion that is true, of course, only in comparison. At least 25,000 American soldiers were killed in the conflict, which puts it on par with Antietam which lasted for one day. But it is far more than we have lost in 11 years in Afghanistan and Iraq combined. Number games like that are silly anyway. The intensity or whatever of a conflict is not necessarily answered by the number of deaths.

What gives this impression more than any relative disparity in the death toll is the long periods of time in which absolutely nothing happened. That is what is most striking about the war to me. Wars were still fought in seasons in the eighteenth century. Troops moved by foot or by boat, if available. As many died from disease as died on the battlefield. Brutal stuff, even if there was not day to day fighting.

Another striking feature of the war is the frequently cited difference between the colonial troops and the French and English regulars. The French in their blue, the English in their red. The military discipline to their life. The French and English officers, though on different sides of the war, had more in common than the French did with their American comrades. America was a provincial backwater and hardly worth the efforts expended by the soldiers of great empires.

What was so remarkable about Washington's performance in the war was not his military skill and battle acumen. He lost far more battles than he won. His true genius lay in keeping the army together at all. For this he was widely lauded by both sides. There was no regular army, no standing continental army, just a ragtag group of militias with varying terms of employment. Washington kept this army together and kept it moving. It was his singular accomplishment in the war.

This ability to keep rival factions together is what paved the way for Washington to become our first president and what allowed our fledgling nation the time needed for the French to mastermind the brilliant siege of Cornwallis at Yorktown that ultimately led to victory. Sometimes you really do win by just not actively losing.