When the Founding Fathers fought against the British Empire, they didn't retreated to the countryside and instead, fought them inch by inch in every major cities.
What? No they didn't.
They repeatedly abandoned cities. House to house fighting was way too difficult, the Americans didn't have an adequate supply of bayonets, and urban warfare was a crazy plan even at the best of times because the whole thing could burn down.
No armed American resistance fought for control of Boston when the British occupied it. They besieged Boston, and surrounded it with Artillery, causing the British to then abandon it.
No armed American resistance fought for control of New York. After the Battle of Long Island, the Americans made mild attempts to keep the British from landing, but they eventually just evacuated.
The Americans abandoned Philadelphia, their capital.
The Americans surrendered to a British siege in Charleston (SC). They did not fight house to house.
The Americans repeatedly abandoned the control of cities because urban warfare was dangerous for all but crack infantry with excellent equipment. It's also a defensive fucking nightmare. It made more sense to burn towns than it was to waste time fighting in them. It's why the British burned Charlestown (MA) when they tried to push the Americans off of Bunker/Breed's Hill.
The Americans abandoned cities because it was basically lunacy to try and fight in them. Normally, towns and buildings were used for sniper fire (like at Bennington & Concord), or specific buildings were used as defensive strong-points (like the 1st Maryland's defense of the Church on Long Island to cover the American rout). The Americans did launch attacks on Trenton & Princeton because in both cases the British/Prussian garrison was completely unaware of their presence.
This is such a standard practice in the Napoleonic era that it's why civilian casualties were dramatically small in even the largest wars. Literally only 1 Gettysburg civilian died at the Battle of Gettysburg. She got hit by a stray round.
When the Founding Fathers fought against the British Empire, they didn't retreated to the countryside and instead, fought them inch by inch in every major cities.
What? No they didn't.
They repeatedly abandoned cities. House to house fighting was way too difficult, the Americans didn't have an adequate supply of bayonets, and urban warfare was a crazy plan even at the best of times because the whole thing could burn down.
No armed American resistance fought for control of Boston when the British occupied it. They besieged Boston, and surrounded it with Artillery, causing the British to then abandon it.
No armed American resistance fought for control of New York. After the Battle of Long Island, the Americans made mild attempts to keep the British from landing, but they eventually just evacuated.
The Americans abandoned Philadelphia, their capital.
The Americans surrendered to a British siege in Charleston (SC). They did not fight house to house.
The Americans repeatedly abandoned the control of cities because urban warfare was dangerous for all but crack infantry with excellent equipment. It's also a defensive fucking nightmare. It made more sense to burn towns than it was to waste time fighting in them. It's why the British burned Charlestown (MA) when they tried to push the Americans off of Bunker/Breed's Hill.
The Americans abandoned cities because it was basically lunacy to try and fight in them. Normally, towns and buildings were used for sniper fire (like at Bennington & Concord), or specific buildings were used as defensive strong-points (like the 1st Maryland's defense of the Church on Long Island to cover the American route). The Americans did launch attacks on Trenton & Princeton because in both cases the British/Prussian garrison was completely unaware of their presence.
This is such a standard practice in the Napoleonic era that it's why civilian casualties were dramatically small in even the largest wars. Literally only 1 Gettysburg civilian died at the Battle of Gettysburg. She got hit by a stray round.