Military Aspects of Revolutionary War

Reading Wood's book, chapter 4, about the military aspects of the War was difficult. I fear I have been forever ruined for reading boring textbooks!  I found myself wanting to read Hakim or to go to the archives and piece things together for myself.  My mind kept drifting to Thomas McGuire's presentation a couple of weeks ago.  Honestly, I don't think I learned any more big concepts from Wood than I did from Mr. McGuire. 

One thing that surprised me greatly was how badly the colonists did in just about every battle.  I'm definitely more understanding now about how they felt by the time they arrived at Valley Forge in 1777.  It's amazing any of the soldiers stayed that long. 

Another thing that struck me was the characterization by Wood of the British on p. 78.  He states that they "never clearly understood what they were up against" with the Americans.  They didn't understand that this was a war about a principle, freedom, whereas most of the wars Britain had fought were financial in origin.  Wood describes there that the Americans did very little by way of large battles, but used their own strengths in small skirmishes, stealth, etc., using guerrilla war tactics.  The fact that we were on the other side of that "not understanding what we're up against" issue during the Vietnam War occurred to me as I was reading.

In contrast to the Wood book, the children's book, The American Revolution, was interesting.  I liked the fictional letters for many parts that reinforced the idea that there were REAL PEOPLE involved in the events of the Revolutionary War.  It was helpful, as well, in giving a brief biography of many of the people involved and how they were important to the American Colonies during the years of the Revolution.