[ExSoldier]

When I get send to TEACH this day to my high school and middle school students I used to have the kids rip out sheets of paper from their notebooks and ball them up. I’d split them into two groups against opposite sides of the classroom and have one side line up into three ranks while the other got to kneel behind desks or bookcases. Then I let them have a paper ball war. I refereed. Then we had a discussion (after cleaning up the “battlefield!”)

It was a lesson between conventional warfare and special operations warfare and it was very effective. Kids all loved it. But they had to admit that the British were incredibly brave to stand their ground or not break ranks despite withering effective fire from the colonials who were sniping from cover all along the Concord Road.

Of course, the British put out flanker’s who walked in the woods parallel to the route of March. The colonists had no concept of “security.” So the British got their licks in as well. They were, at times able to ambush the ambushers.

[skeeter]

Fischer’s book gives a very detailed account of the battle all the way back from Concord. It wasn’t all sniping from cover - the colonials did line up in formation and confront the British on a few occasions that day.

But the story of Samuel Whittemore is my favorite.