Over the Years: Military Fighting Styles of the United States

War has faced the United States of America for centuries. From the wars of the American Revolution that started in 1775 to help the nation secure its independence in 1776, to the present day U.S. army, that is last reported to be fighting seven wars in foreign countries according to VICE News. So for a country that has been fighting for around 243 years, how have battle styles changed over all that time?

American Revolutionary War (1775-1783)

This was the first set of wars that technically can be accredited to the United States of America as their own military. Even though these were battles to gain independence from the British, the American Colonists used normal fighting tactics of the British in that time period. Each army would face each other in a linear formation, about 100 yards apart from each other. They then fired musket volleys at each other, and started to move closer towards each other to increase the damage. Once one side was clearly defeated, that army’s side would retreat hastily, but generally in an orderly fashion. Thus, the remaining army would gain that territory. Obviously this was a very primitive style of warfare, in which many lives were lost because of how “up close” it was, and was very adherent to rules in which warfare begins to lose site of as it modernizes.

War of 1812 (1812-1815)

This war preserved the use of the musket from the American Revolutionary War, but also included of swords for highly ranked military members, and even tomahawks for some of the native forces. Since this war was fought over the Great Lakes (against the British), pretty much all of it was recorded to take place using ships. So with this different fighting style, came new tactics to fight. Blockading was widely used by each side as an effort to cut them off from supplies and/or communications by force. Also the use of impressment came into play, particularly for the British, which was forcing citizens to enlist in the military. The  way the battles were constructed was to line up with an opposing ship until one ship had killed enough of the army to take the ship over. The war had ended in no gain for either side anyhow, and was simply a pointless waste of life.

Mexican-American War (1846-1848)

Over a refusal to annex Texas, Mexican troops attacked US troops to result in the US declaring war on them in 1846, and ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. With cannons and mortars entering the mix of weapons, American’s started to fight with more strategy rather than rules or etiquette in their fighting techniques. They chose to split up divisions to attack the Spanish army. They surrounded them, and slowly moved inward, attacking them until their surrender. They also used the strategy of elevation, and understood techniques of how to properly attack when on and off a hill. The Americans had their best success not having the high ground, because their smart defensive strategies developed to remain hidden, until it was too late for the Mexican soldiers.

American Civil War (1861-1865)

This was most violent war to take place on American soil, resulting in over 412,000 deaths (more deaths than World War I and World War II from military combat). Unfortunately this was due to the fact that this war truly lacked much strategy to begin with. The handbook for  each cadet was very vague to say the least, and the most significant point in the war’s strategy was to secure main capitals or forts, and even any area of a strategic site in terms of offense or defense. Besides that, everything else was as basic as “Make sure you can outnumber your enemy.” The lack of superior planning from previous warfare might have been one of the main reasons of why this war’s death toll was so high.

World War I (1914-1918)

With a huge jump in time, came a huge advance in technology. With weaponry like machine guns, flame throwers, harmful chemical gases and rifles, it was definitely a brutal war. Luckily, to save my soul, techniques actually came more decisively and simply in WWI and WWII. WWI consisted of Trench Warfare. As depicted above, soldiers legitimately dug themselves in trenches for sometimes long spans of time in which they had to remain there. It made protection easier for the weapons of the time, but made health and communication amongst the soldiers very poor.

World War II

A wartime that welcomed the use of tanks and airplanes, this was a war that had to be dug up from the trenches. Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which a small group of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactics and mobility to fight a larger, and more immobile, traditional military.

After these major wars, conflict did not arise nearly as notable until the Korean War (1950-1953), and the Vietnam War (1959-1975), which had to fight different styles based on the environment they were held in. The Cold War (1947-1991) wasn’t much more than an elongated threat, that had resulted in nothing but threats hurled back between the powerful nations of the time (USA and the Soviet Union).

More modern conflicts we have note of today was the US takedown of Saddam Hussein’s government in the Iraq War (2003-2011), and the Afghanistan War that started in 2001, and is still going on while I am writing this blog!

The reason why this has good merit for all you guys is quite simple. If advancements in military strategy and weaponry have developed as they have through history thus far, who is to say what might develop in our futures? Furthermore, this shift needs to be explored and understood so we can figure out how to save more lives instead of losing them in war, and the fact that we now have to plan against weapons that could kill millions of people in the blink of an eye! This is an article not only for historians, but for future military strategists, future troops who plan to fight for this great country and an awareness for the general public that this is not the paradigm shift that we want to support for our futures!