The Oppression from England upon America prior to the American Revolutionary War. You remember how we won that? By playing dirty. By breaking the rules. We hid behind stuff while the redcoats came marching down the lane in military fashion. Same thing that Bin Laden's doing now against us. Now WE are the Redcoats.

I missed this earlier, and it deserves its own section, because it's going to take a long time to talk about it. It is, sad to say, a myth. It's true that in the early stages of the war that some parts of the fighting was done this way (most notably at the Battle of Lexington and Concord) but the primary battles which were won by the Revolutionaries were not won that way. In fact, in the early stages of the war, most attempts to fight that kind of war were failures. For example, the legendary Battle of Bunker Hill was actually won by the British. Its fame and importance is not due to the fact that the Americans won it, but rather because they managed to put up as good a fight as they did. (The British suffered a thousand casualties, about a third of their number.)

One of the least well known and most important events of the Revolutionary War when when Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben arrived at Valley Forge. He'd met Benjamin Franklin in Europe, who convinced him to come to the US and teach the Patriot army how to fight. (One of many things we have to thank Franklin for.) And over the course of the next few months, he did so -- and taught the Americans how to fight European style. And some of the most successful battles of the war on the Patriot side were fought by men who had gone through von Steuben's training, and fought European style. (My favorite is the Battle of the Cowpens.

The most important battle ever fought by the United States was the Battle of Yorktown. Franklin (again!) had convinced the Emperor of France to commit the French fleet. There was a substantial British force there, at the end of a long peninsula, but it was being supplied by the British Fleet. The French moved their fleet in and prevented (without combat) the RN from helping the Army units, and Washington stole a march and moved his army from New York down to Virginia and laid siege to the city. It was a classic siege, with trenches and artillery being advanced stepwise, and at the end of that the British surrendered and their forces there were taken prisoner. It was the last battle of the revolutionary war, and it wasn't fought by shooting from behind trees and rocks. It was classic application of European tactics, and it wouldn't have been possible without von Steuben's training. (He eventually became an American citizen and was given a pension.)

"Shooting from behind trees" is a popular image of how the war was fought; it seems to suggest stuffy British wedded to old fashion tactics being shown a new way of war by the upstart but brilliant and innovative Americans. It's sad to say that it isn't true. The Revolution was only won after Washington's army adopted European tactics and started to stand up and fight in lines. (discuss)