“The American War of Independence did not start as a regular war”
You were talking about the Civil War in your previous comment, not the Revolution.
And yes, the American revolution did start with many uprising and insurgencies that eventually led to a declaration of independence and eventual war between the two countries.
In my post 85 that this followed up from, I referenced the war of Independence, but even the Civil war did not start as a war between two countries.
It started as an insurrection by the colonized against a well armed British colonial masters, with one of the strongest military's in the world at the time.
In the end, the insurrectionist colonists with militias ended up beating the well armed colonial masters with a big well trained army, the British.