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Donald Graves and Graeme Decarie, Canadian Historians
Further Reading |
Changes in the American army by the time of the Niagara Campaign of 1814Graves: What you've got now for the first time are divisional-sized formations in operation, a division being in the neighborhood in those days of three to five thousand men. What it means is that the American infantryman has been trained in European tactics, well trained and, to get right down to it, it means that he can get off one to two rounds per minute, stand in line, and deliver punishment. The British infantryman, of course, had been able to do this throughout the war. Now for the first time the Americans have soldiers who can stand up in open battle and open ground, and fight according to the European precepts of combat. And what then happens is over the next four months you have four of the bloodiest actions of the war. But again, fought largely by regular troops. By this time, the nature of the war itself is changing; there's increasing numbers of British regular army and royal navy coming into British North America. The war has started off rather as an amateurish thing on both sides. The use of civilian soldiers and native warriors. But in the third year of the war, it's becoming a war of the professionals, and the Niagara campaign, the longest and bloodiest campaign of the War of 1812, is a campaign of professionals.Decarie: So you're bringing together for the first time these troops who are trained to deliver the maximum fire power, and they're also trained not to back away. Graves: Well, yes. Decarie: And when both sides are trained that way, what you have in effect are two grindstones working against each other. And of course by now the Americans have weeded out the incompetent generals, and they have more capable people leading, and more capable officers in general. |
