Matthew H. Spring. With Zeal and Bayonets Only: The British Army on Campaign in North America, 1775-1783. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008. Xxiv + 381 ppg. Review by Jimmy Dick
Matthew Spring has expanded his doctoral dissertation into a full length book and in the process debunked many fallacies about how the British Army operated in North America during the American Revolution. He drew upon the writings of the officers from both sides of the war as well as diaries and letters of the enlisted men, and those of the Hessians who served under the British flag. In Spring’s pages, the visual concept of perfect rows of British soldiers marching over open fields to engage the Continental Army is pushed aside in favor of what actually took place; British troops advancing in skirmish lines across terrain that was broken by fences, brush, and heavily wooded areas. The British Army’s reliance on shock tactics including the famed bayonet charge were usually effective, but over time as the Continental Army gained experience and used the terrain to their advantage these tactics failed.
Still, the British Army won most of the Revolution’s battles but failed to win the war due to strategic and logistical problems presented by the sheer size of the colonies. In addition, the political factors brought about by France entering the war decreased the manpower available to the British generals who begged for more troops throughout the war. Spring’s chapters explore how the British maneuvered, their formations, their units, and how the men were recruited and organized. The book could have used more detailed information on the actual units, the campaigns and battles they fought in, and the weaponry involved beyond the basic arms. Still, it gives a fascinating explanation of the British Army that shatters the misconceptions held by many.
The facts were that the British soldier fought extremely well and with great pride throughout the war. The soldiers themselves fought in different manners depending on units, but were let down by the lack of resources needed to exploit their battlefield victories while being unable to replace losses late in the war. The image Spring leaves with the reader is one of a proud seasoned British veteran that fought in North America as part of a professional army. Illustrations by Don Troiani add to that image. The book is well written and organized by topic into each chapter which allows the reader to move through the pages by subject conveniently. Tactics, military organization, logistics, and the use of the bayonet as well as both small arms and artillery are explained in their corresponding chapters. His use of supporting statistics serves to add to the information and expands the topic rather than overwhelm the reader with a plethora of numbers.
Spring takes the time to explain how the British regiments recruited their men in the Home Isles, trained them, and sent them into the ranks of the parent units in North America. He also devotes a chapter to the leadership of the regiments and how those officers were instrumental on the battlefield in rallying broken units while also employing intelligent small unit tactics to counter the Continental Army’s bushfighting strategy. In addition he explains why the British failed to defeat the Continentals. When the British and Americans clashed in major set piece battles the British carried the day almost every time, but from the very beginning the British commanders were hamstrung by their lack of numbers needed to defeat the Continentals and pacify the countryside. At no time did they have enough men to meet the political goals of the British Parliament. When France and Spain entered the war on the American side and expanded the conflict into a truly global war the British Army in the North American colonies was cut in half. The West Indies were considered far more valuable than the thirteen American colonies and substantial numbers of troops were redeployed from the force in North America in order to protect the island colonies from French and Spanish depredations.
Generally Spring does not go into much detail beyond the strategic military situation of the forces fighting in North America, however to explain the situation so that the reader will understand why the rebellion succeeded he had to outline the handicaps which the British fought under during the conflict. The British attempt to use military force to resolve a political dispute in this manner strongly implies that most members of Parliament as well as the King and his advisors failed to understand the logistical issues as well as the sheer size of the colonies. There is no question that the British Army was by far and above superior to the forces the Americans had, but due to the failure of Parliament to create a force large enough to meet its goals most British victories ended up being Pyrrhic as they could ill afford to lose any substantial number of men. It was this failure that Spring concludes was the primary reason behind the success of American Independence to overcome the better quality British troops.
All in all the book is a refreshing challenge to the hoary tales of British troops marching into sheets of American firepower ignoring their losses until they finally met into close combat. Instead, the reader is left imagining the British troops using the terrain as cover, employing light infantry to skirmish with and distract the Americans, while quickly closing with the Americans in their defensive positions and often causing the Continental lines to break in fear. In other words, the British Army has been given back its status of the preeminent fighting machine of its day.
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