{"id":7715,"date":"2023-03-22T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-22T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=7715"},"modified":"2023-03-07T16:23:34","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T21:23:34","slug":"gun-choice-clothing-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/gun-choice-clothing-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"GUN CHOICE, CLOTHING CHOICE\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I was recently reading \u201cOf Arms and Men: A History of War, Weapons, and Aggression<\/a>\u201d by Robert L. O\u2019Connell (Oxford University Press, 1989).  Therein we find:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf much more significance, however, was the colonial proclivity to use what were essentially hunting guns against their Indian foes. By around 1750, the so-called Pennsylvania rifle, later famed as the Kentucky long rifle, was already considerably modified from its Alpine European prototype. Although slow loading \u2013 traditionally accomplished with a mallet and a short iron rod \u2013 did not disqualify the rifle for use in the backwoods, the nascent Americans came up with a quicker easier means, utilizing a greased patch wrapped around the ball which could then be pushed smoothly down the bore. The resulting weapon was ideally suited to conditions of sporadic aboriginal violence, where targets were fleeting and every shot had to count. Hunting and war, the essential conditions were the same, and so the population came to arm itself like none in Europe. \u2018Rifles infinitely better than those imported, are daily made in many places in Pennsylvania, and all the gunsmiths everywhere (are) constantly employed,\u2019 warned an Anglican minister writing home in 1775. \u2018In marching through the woods, one thousand of these riflemen would cut to pieces ten-thousand of your best English troops.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Connell continued, \u201cSo grew the legend of the omnipresent frontier marksman, hunting Indians or British regulars with the same deadly efficiency with which he stalked game. Playing upon the myth early in the Revolution, General George Washington issued an order in which he urged \u2018the use of Hunting Shirts, with long Breeches\u2026(as) it is a dress justly supposed to carry no small terror to the enemy, who thinks every such person a compleat Marksman.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Connell confirms the general consensus that the British troops were more professional and far better trained than the colonials. However, he adds:  \u201cBut still the myth of the citizen-sharpshooter lived on. Using innovative tactics, amateur American officers learned to make the most of their troops, emphasizing skirmish, ambush, and harassment with snipers. If colonial troops were quick to desert, they also continued to volunteer their services in reasonably large numbers, albeit on a short-term basis\u2026Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston \u2013 all the key colonial cities had been occupied, but always without decisive results. And still the countryside remained rebellious, a dangerous morass where every tree hid a potential rebel sharpshooter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Centuries later, similar tactics worked for groups ranging from the Viet Cong to the Taliban. Food for thought as we look at the world we now live in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was recently reading \u201cOf Arms and Men: A History of War, Weapons, and Aggression\u201d by Robert L. O\u2019Connell (Oxford University Press, 1989).  Therein we find: \u201cOf much more significance, however, was the colonial proclivity to use what were essentially hunting guns against their Indian foes. By around 1750, the so-called Pennsylvania rifle, later famed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7715"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7718,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7715\/revisions\/7718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}