The American Revolutionary War was not won by any American offensive attack: at least not directly. It was won by the fact that the American people decided that we wanted political independence. As soon as that happened, it became the case that Great Britain only controlled the ground in America that her soldiers were physically standing on. As soon as the Redcoats left an American town, that town fell back into American hands. That fact made British defeat inevitable, because Great Britain did not have enough soldiers to physically occupy every square inch of the American colonies. However, if Washington had not performed his brilliant retreats to preserve the existence of the regular American army, then this consensus among the civilians could not have been established or maintained. The American soldiers couldnt just go home and trust that the civilians would wait the British out. The civilians would only continue to support the revolution as long as any of them whose hometowns were occupied by British troops could retain some hope of rescue from the American army, even if it was a fantasy. So Washingtons Fabian strategy was not in any sense useless, ineffectual or unnecessary. The weird thing is how the Fabian strategy was such a political disaster for Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus but not for George Washington. I guess Washington managed to score just enough symbolic/psychological/propoganda victories like the Battle of Trenton to avoid Fabiuss difficulties in that area.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 05:33:23 +0000
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