William Knight, on 18 October 2013 - 07:20 AM, said:
The British fought in bright coats and in line so that the General could see what his men were doing.
The British also made use of full camouflage right from the start of the American revolution (in fact they* used full camouflage against the French during the French and Indian War). So the British were not being foolish but in fact being quite sensible.
*Some units.
Sorry, but i'm one of those guys that would happily shoot you in the back. Practicalities of War you understand.
As in many things evolved over centuries, there are many facets to why something was done. The fighting in ranks was as much because a solid wall of musket shots tended to be needed to hit a target reliably (and do enough damage to an enemy force to make an impact) as it was for the morale of the infantry. Similarly, the bright colors did help the Generals organize a fight, but they were just as importantly a badge of office for the troopers, telling all they were facing the British, the best of the best armies in the world (go tell a Highlander he can't wear his kilt, or a British Grenadier Guardsman he can't wear his cap badge if you don't think this is true). That this all put them at a disadvantage during the fight was seen as an unfortunate part of modern war by the Generals, and it should be noted that they did, indeed, tend to push the Colonial forces around at will when they encountered them in force, until near the end.
My point was that the British -idea- of honor was, in fact, pride. Oh, it had the remnants of the honor it was descended from, but by that time the British had been the dominant world power for long enough for the primary reason for a British trooper to serve in the conflict to be more pride than honor. The thought of a group of colonies uprising against their sovereign lord and master was probably more of a motivation than any idea of preserving the Empire to those troops who weren't just collecting some coin at the Crown's expense.
However, it is noteworthy that both sides refrained (most of the time) (officially) from things we would term 'dishonorable'. Both saw themselves as civilized people, and strived to keep agreements made as well as conduct themselves in such a way. By contrast, quite a few other wars of the period featured things such as slaughtering prisoners, enslavement, torture, elimination of the families of the combatants, and conscription of children. While one might argue about differing moral codes in differing parts of the world, there are some things any civilization must recognize as dishonorable if it is to remain stable and existant, and almost all come up with standards people across the world would understand on a basic level (even if they scratched their heads at some of the ways they were implemented).
Edited by Jakob Knight, 18 October 2013 - 08:23 AM.
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