Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: KC_Lion

Yes, Victor Hanson writes about Cannae-—the most interesting thing is that Hannibal did something almost impossible to do: he staged an orderly withdrawal without trained troops.

On a larger geographic scale, it’s what Sam Houston vs Santa Anna and George Washington after Brooklyn Heights did.


4 posted on 02/28/2016 5:51:18 AM PST by LS ("Castles Made of Sand, Fall in the Sea . . . Eventually" (Hendrix))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies ]


To: LS; KC_Lion; SunkenCiv; sphinx; justa-hairyape; Billthedrill; bert; All

I don’t think that Hannival staged an orderly withdrawal “without trained troops.” I would think that after crossing the Alps 2 years earlier and rampaging up and down the Italian peninsula they would have been pretty well trained. After all, how was he going to add on new recruits? The amazing thing was maintaining discipline and morale with a large group of different tribal peoples with different languages. Anyone know how many languages Hannibal spoke? One can gain some sense of his difficulty by watching Lawrence of Arabia. You can see the hostility between the tribes at the beginning, and again at the end when the tribes are arguing over who was going to run what in Damascus. Fortunately for Lawrence, they all spoke Arabic and he was an accomplished linguist.

Regarding battle tactics, I was reminded of some research I did on a historical novel I hope to finish writing. I visited the site of the Battle of the Cowpens in South Carolina. This was a critical battle in bringing about the end of the American Revolution. I think that the southern role in fighting this war is seriously under recognized in teaching about that period. At any rate, there was aging General Daniel Morgan, facing nasty Banastre Tarleton (Blood Ban, killer of surrendered troops). He had a contingent of trained Colonial troops, but also a large number of “overmountain men” who had come from the west (Kentucky, Tennessee) to help fight the British. Morgan, knowing that these raw troops would not have the experience and discipline to hold the line placed them in front and said that after firing 2 or 3 shots they could retire to the rear and circle around to the sides. The British were then faced with the hardened Colonials. Over 600 British were captured and British losses over all were around 5 to 1. Here is a fascinating link, and while there you might also click the link to the crossing of the river Dan which ultimately led to the Yorktown defeat.

http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/Cowpens1.html


46 posted on 02/29/2016 12:11:26 AM PST by gleeaikin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson