By der Numpbers--Lock und Loadt
This one is a little early for Patriots' Day, whether you observe it on April 19th, when the farmer made sure he was going to be embattled by putting a shot across the flood the rude bridge was arching, and rendered all world history to date mere prologue, or on the third Monday in April, as it is in those states where it's a legal holiday (and why it isn't a legal holiday in all 50 states and however many territories we've got, if not in every country whose chestnuts we've ever pulled out of the fire since, is beyond me). But, It's finished, I've got time on my hands today, and I may not have time to post it tomorrow or Tuesday, so here it is.
I'm an unconventional warfare guy myself, and if I'd been running things we'd have fought the whole Revolution with hasty ambushes the way we chased the British back from Concord. But UW does have its drawbacks, one of which is that it's a prolonged process, and if we'd done it my way we might not have had the Civil War, WW's I and II and Vietnam, because we might STILL be sniping at the Redcoats from behind every fencepost, stone wall and deadfall between here and Boston. And Americans have always liked their wars the way they like their superbowl--they want a decision RIGHT NOW (I think one of the reasons football became more popular than baseball is it doesn't have that tedious 5- or 7-game series as a windup--one big game, one big party, and it's in the record books, sportsfans).
So, if you're going to have a big decision against a conventional force, you gotta have a conventional force to force the decision with. Lafayette gets all the glory, and I won't say he isn't rightly entitled to his share, but for my money, our most valuable "foreigner" was the Baron von Steuben. Without the drillmaster of Valley Forge, Lafayette and Washington just might not have had a conventional army to fight a conventional war with. And I put "foreigner" in quotation marks, because while both Lafayette and von Steuben became American citizens--the former by Act of Congress, the latter only by acts of the Pennsylvania and New York state legislatures--unlike Lafayette, von Steuben spent the rest of his life here--collected his veteran's benefits like a good trooper should and, by serving as an adviser to President Washington on military matters, may well have started the tradition of retired American generals getting themselves double-dipper jobs in government.
Okay, that last was said in jest, but in addition to inaugurating a tradition of pride and professionalism in the citizen-soldier U.S. Army, he was a plank-holder in another tradition that is no joke: considering that a large part of the British Army deployed in The Colonies was comprised of German mercenaries, he was among the first of a long line of loyal German-Americans more than willing to defend The Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, including der Kousins from der Vaterland. One of my favorite stories of the American army is from Henry Berry's oral history of WW I, "Make the Kaiser Dance". There was some doubt about whether a Wisconsin National Guard unit, comprised almost wholly of German immigrants and 1st- and 2nd-generation German-Americans, would be all that willing to "close with and destroy the enemy" (as the mission statement of the Infantry puts it) in their first fight. Recalling both the doubts and the ferocity with which those "Dutchmen" hit the German trench line, an elderly vet who had been in a neighboring unit recalled with awe and approval, "There sure weren't any Kaiser-lovers in THAT crowd!" And, while the pre-WW II pro-Nazi, pro-Hitler German-American Bund got all the press and most of the attention of the FBI and the British intelligence agents operating in America at the time, and 99.9% of all available space in subsequent histories, their membership was never more than a fraction of that of the Von Steuben Society, which then and still does promote both German-American heritage and unswerving loyalty to the United States of America and all it stands for.
Finally, in deference to the noted Francophile Cadet J--, who may take exception to what could be interpreted as my giving short shrift to the French in general and Lafayette in particular, I will point out that my little Valley Forge Valley Girl is answering the call to arms with her Charleville Model 1766 (or Light Model 1763, as it was also designated) .69 caliber smoothbore musket which, courtesy of the French (and all NRA backwoodsmen-grabbing-their-Pennsylvania-Kentucky-long-rifles-off-the- pegs-over-the-fireplace-mantle propaganda to the contrary) was the standard--and, therefore, war-winning--weapon of the Continental Army (not to mention Rochambeau's 7,800 French regulars, who comprised almost half the force of some 16,650 total with which Washington cornered Cornwallis at Yorktown).
Comments and faves
tushygalore66 (14 months ago | reply)
Yeah, what she said! ;)
Sir Basil Birchbottom (14 months ago | reply)
Yeah, I guess in addition to Lafayette, Rochambeau, and the Charleville musket, I probably should thank the French for inventing ze double entendre.
skintone added this photo to her favorites. (13 months ago)