The British were coming.
Hundreds upon hundreds of them.
The colonist militia had been warned; however, the odds were not in their favor.
Greatly outnumbered, eight died and nine more were injured as the first scuffle broke out.
Hours later, the British marched on.
They trudged slowly through the countryside on the route back to Boston, blissfully unaware
of the danger that lurked all around, just waiting to be unleashed.
What happened next had them abandoning their weapons and supplies while fleeing for their
lives.
Find out how the militiamen gained the upper hand in this episode of the Infographics Show
– What is Guerrilla Warfare?
After the British had killed the first men at Lexington, they went to nearby Concord
in search of weapons.
By the time they arrived, most of the stockpile had been moved.
Finding only the remaining few, they burned them.
However, the blaze became larger than they had planned, leading to the militiamen in
the surrounding areas thinking that the entire town was in danger.
Now, militiamen were known by another name as well, and a well-earned one: minutemen.
In other words, they were so skilled and efficient that they could be prepared for anything within
the span of a minute.
They quickly made their way to Concord and towards the fire.
As the British began their 18-mile-long (28.968 kilometers) journey back to Boston, thousands
of additional minutemen were either at the scene or close by.
Some only followed the redcoats as they marched.
But things quickly escalated from there.
Militiamen, crawling on their stomachs and concealed behind sheds, walls, and trees began
to open fire from every direction, causing panic among the British ranks.
The soldiers fled to Menotomy and then to Cambridge while under the continual assault
of bullets.
Approximately 250 Redcoats died that day from minutemen fire.
Many more would have perished if the shooters were more skilled with their weapons.
However, the American militia was relatively untrained and inexperienced.
The British were not.
In fact, the British had dominated on the battlefield for a century, rising above the
powers of both Spain and France.
They had great weapons, thorough training, good food, and a large budget should they
require anything else.
Their American counterparts could barely afford shoes.
Still, the fact remained: 250 British had been killed on April 19, 1775, while only
90 militiamen had died.
The colonists were able to stand up to the army of a top world power and not only hold
their ground, but have a superior outcome.
How was this possible?
Well, because they had used guerrilla warfare techniques.
The British had expected the American colonists to fight a traditional fight where two groups
engage in an organized face-to-face battle as gentlemen.
This would have led to the certain obliteration of the Americans with their inferior numbers
and firepower.
The British did not under any circumstance anticipate that the militiamen would instead
be sliding over the ground and hiding behind various types of objects to get a clear shot
at the regiment while remaining safely obscured from view.
This, to the British, was highly irregular.
Guerrilla fighting, as described, is anything but traditional.
Those involved typically function as a smaller group of highly mobile individuals who are
up against a larger, more orthodox group, such as the military or officers of the law.
The goal of most guerilla groups is to protest wrongs, including both real and imagined,
carried out by a ruling power or an invader.
Guerrilla fighters may work alone, or they may work for the benefit of a larger group.
They are generally hated by military leadership due to their damaging and unpredictable techniques
and have historically been given unflattering names such as terrorists, barbarians, and
savages.
The British, who had been taxing the colonists in addition to a host of further grievances
that first brought about this conflict, provided the members of the militia with their own
less-than-flattering moniker: Yankee scoundrels.
And Francis Marion, a guerrilla leader at large later on during the war, earned his
own distinction as the Swamp Fox.
He and his band of men were famous for their ability to surprise and outmaneuver the British
in the wet swampy terrain of the south.
Guerrilla fighting, though just one contributing factor among many, would certainly help the
colonists as they fought for their independence and freedom.
Unfortunately, in the future, Americans would be using these less-than-traditional techniques
against one another, as growing tensions between citizens in the northern and southern regions
of the country resulted in full-on civil war.
While most history books focus on the large armies that fought a traditional fight, the
south had an additional conflict of its own filled with vicious raids, ambushes, and other
shifty, underhanded, and at time treacherously murderous, techniques.
There was no shortage of men to carry out these maneuvers.
From the onset of war and on, many southern men preferred to join a guerrilla group rather
than sign up with the Confederate army.
They had more freedom this way and could stay close to their families to offer them their
protection.
These guerrilla fighters were broken up into two distinct groups: bushwhackers, or civilians
who hid in the bush and foliage and were difficult to distinguish from peaceful southern civilians,
and partisan rangers, who wore the Confederate uniform and though independent still reported
to Confederate superiors.
The Union code of conduct eventually allowed for the shooting of bushwhackers, as they
were not affiliated with the army, while the partisans, who were legally recognized by
the Confederate Congress as an alternate fighting force, were thus protected as prisoners of
war.
In contrast to the south, northerners were less prone to becoming guerrillas.
The few from the Midwest were called the Jayhawkers and those from the East were the Buffaloes;
all fought the bushwhackers.
The bushwhackers were quite a force to recon with.
Many considered their strategies to be flat-out unethical, as men like William Quantrill killed
hundreds of men and boys in one go as well as dozens of unarmed Union soldiers at a time.
However, Jayhawkers were known to terrorize southern families as well.
The partisan rangers were the most damaging of all by cutting off Union supplies and communication,
disrupting transit, and disguising themselves to infiltrate defenses and attack.
Having to fight the Confederate army on one front as well as the guerrillas seemingly
everywhere else was exceedingly difficult for the Union.
Scouting parties tasked with guerrilla capture were unsuccessful.
As they remained at large to continue their ruthless attack, a deep and unabating hatred
began to form, not only for the guerrillas, but for the entire southern population.
As a consequence, the Union began burning homes, arresting innocents, and evacuating
large areas as a precautionary and defensive maneuver.
They lost all tolerance upon encountering the rebellious forces.
Citizens soon stopped approving of the guerrilla strategy as the violence continued and they
began to suffer from Union retaliation.
Without a supportive base, the movement eventually lost steam.
However, the emotions surrounding the fighters and the region from which they came likely
endured long after the war was over.
Of course, America has not been immune to the superior fighting strategies of other
nations when subjected to them as a world power on foreign soil.
One such instance was the Vietnam War.
During this conflict, the Vietnamese military that they were up against, known as the Vietcong,
was instructed to avoid American confrontation except in instances when they significantly
outnumbered them or in some other way held an obvious advantage.
Leadership instead insisted that they use hit and run techniques, targeted ambush, and
a system of underground tunnels in areas not concealed by swamp or foliage.
These tunnels were not only for shelter, but for launching an offense attack from beneath
regions controlled by the enemy above ground.
With an underground system that in some locations extended almost 200 miles, accessed by trapdoors
and with hidden openings, the American forces never saw them coming.
This, combined with their stealth-like ability to blend in with the native habitat and move
without making a sound, obliterated American forces.
In addition to historical instances, the guerrilla approach still creates problems for America
that linger today.
The Taliban have all but perfected the use of the ambush, for example, and are adept
at opening fire and then blending in with the local population, disappearing unseen
to where it is safe so that they can attack again.
They are understanding the approaches that work thanks to Soviet and American tactical-based
literature and the information provided by watchful local informants.
Combined, these have created a deadly and worthy opponent.
Guerrilla warfare is unconventional warfare at the hands of a typically smaller group
working in opposition to a larger, more traditional force.
As has been described, it can be extraordinarily effective as groups who wait and hide, who
ambush and surprise, who lurk in the shadows or beneath the surface, have the obvious upper
hand.
As guerrillas prove, there is much more that contributes to the outcome of battle than
numbers or technology alone.
The right strategy can make all the difference.
But the question remains: where should the powers that be draw the line?
What is acceptable guerrilla technique, and what is going too far?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called Mad Jack - A Real Life World War 2
Mad Man!
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