Treed by David Wright.
Too Close For Comfort, Robert W. Griffing.
When Frontier Partisans encountered a potentially hostile force in the trans-Appalachian backcountry, they immediately “treed.”
Woodland hunters and fighters of North America intuitively sought cover and concealment. Going to trees seems like an obvious move, but it deviated significantly from standard 18th century European tactics, which relied on massing of force and firepower to dominate the battlefield. Skirmishing tactics evolved from the mid-18th century through the 19th century, until open order and seeking cover and concealment became a necessity on a battlefield swept by fire from machine guns and rapid-fire artillery. Even then, most armies didn’t get it figured out, and paid the price in casualties in World War I.
At Saratoga, and at King’s Mountain — decisive battles in the American Revolution — riflemen fought in a dispersed fashion, from the trees, firing effectively on an exposed and bunched-up enemy.
Trees were used as cover and concealment, and as a rest for the long barrel of the rifle. Then, as now, a skilled rifleman sought as steady a rested position as possible. It’s best to avoid offhand shooting when the chips are down.
Modern tactical training repeatedly hammers home the critical difference between cover and concealment.
“Cover is protection from the fire of hostile weapons.
Concealment is protection from observation.” — USMC
You can conceal yourself behind a car or a cinder block wall — but it may not provide adequate cover, protection against incoming fire. It’s easy to feel fatally safe behind an object that won’t protect you. Modern rifle ammunition will go right through a car, except at the engine compartment, and can blow right through several walls. I cored out a perfectly good half-inch-thick steel gong a couple of days ago with the CZ 600 .223, because… well, because.
In the 18th Century, a relatively thin tree or log could make adequate cover. The slow-moving, soft lead roundball fired by flintlock muskets or rifles didn’t have anywhere close to the penetration of modern, high-velocity jacketed ammo. Even a board fence could serve as cover, as it did for one of Rifleman Timothy Murphy’s patrols that got caught out by an enemy force in the Mohawk Valley in 1780 (from Gavin K. Watt, The Burning of the Valleys):
The scouts were approaching the Dutch Reform’s brick church when suddenly the Indians were amongst them and they retired towards the fort, skirmishing on the way. The scouts took temporary cover behind a board fence, from whence Murphy spotted troops attempting to outflank their position. He advised the Major, and Eckerson ordered a retreat just as the advancing company levelled (their muskets) and fired. Murphy had hung back to get a better shot at the advancing foe. The fence boards were riddled with ball and a few of the men had their linen riflemen’s frocks punctured, but all of them escaped without harm.”
Frontier folklore is replete with tales of men dueling after going to trees in an an encounter in the woods. The goal was to draw your adversary’s fire, then close the distance and finish him. Strategems like the old hat-on-the-ramrod gambit could trick a fighter into emptying his rifle, leaving him at your mercy.
This feller — whose day job is in law enforcement — offers a nice video summary of the tactics of forest warfare:
Wayne says
The old growth trees at the Battle of King’s Mountain were enormous; big enough to conceal a half a dozen or more men and easily stop a round ball. I was once inside a hollow at the base of a tulip poplar tree in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest (NC) with 9 other adults. Joyce Kilmer is one of the last remaining original old growth forests in the southeast. Modern trees don’t begin to compare in size. We’re used to seeing a single riflemen hide behind a single tree, but in the 1700’s a squad could hide behind a tree, which makes for a very different kind of forest.
JimC says
God those trees were fantastical.
lane batot says
Gawd, that is a beautiful, awe-inspiring place–the Joyce Kilmer National Forest, and the adjacent Slick Rock Creek Wilderness Area. I was there hiking/camping many years ago. The sheer MASSIVENESS of the trees is mind boggling, reminding one how very different VIRGIN timber in such a forest is to what most of us see nowadays. Thank goodness a few remnants have been preserved!
Matthew says
I don’t think people realize how important terrain is to tactics and strategy. I’m sure you know that the European mass troop tactics that are often mocked in comparison to the guerrilla fighting during the revolution actually worked quite on the fields of Europe. (And quite often in America during the Revolution.) The guerrilla fighting style that worked well in Appalachia did not work so well in the Texas plains against Comanche. People tend think of strategy and tactics as in some kind of absolute hierarchy. Really it depended on the situation for what was best. It takes flexibility.
JimC says
True. Massing of firepower was really critical until magazine rifles and machine guns made up for it with rate of fire.
Craig Rullman says
With todays weaponry a cinderblock wall doesn’t get it done. I had a very hard time convincing my Marines, and later my SWAT boys, that bullets go through walls and cars and many other things. Their minds have been warped by television and movies that teach them that people drop with the first round and plywood is impenetrable. That’s a very difficult obstacle to overcome, mentally. And it also works in reverse. They tend not to shoot. It wasn’t until I hauled junk cars to the range and made them shoot through the windshield, and demonstrated how rounds will penetrate, or skip, through cars, and so on, that I was able to get in their heads enough to address poor tactics in a meaningful way. Excellent piece. And a good reminder for every day Joe’s to be realistic about what does what in the modern 360° environment.
JimC says
Hadn’t thought about the reluctance to shoot but that totally makes sense.
Kobus van Coppenhagen says
The ‘Boers’ were very adept at using terrain for concealment and de la Rey was the best exponent of it. He understood the value of using terrain correctly to get the best effect from high velocity smokeless ammunition. At the time he even deployed black powder arms as a decoy (to ‘betray’ their positions), only to lead the enemy into a carefully prepared trap (aka the bait at the mouth of the trap). He utilised the relatively flat trajectory of modern bullets to best effect, turning long held concepts upside down, ….
JimC says
Yes! The defense at Modder River was brilliant in just that way.
Quixotic Mainer says
Tree all! Great video capping the article, I’ll be subscribing there, that gent seems like a kindred spirit.
On the subject of using the horseless carriage for cover and concealment; if your foe is broadside to the vehicle, one of the safest points to fight from is behind the wheels and tires. If you adopt “urban prone”, you can do some creditable shooting down there, while the shadow of the vehicle will make you hard to observe as well. Standing up, the steel pillars of the vehicle can soak up a fair amount of hate as well, if, as the gent in the video suggested, you stand right.
Wyatt McCord says
Down here in South Texas across the Rio from Reynosa, Tamaulipas we see the results of trying to fight from inside a vehicle. The cartel boys who don’t get out fast enough when the shooting starts don’t get out at all.
JimC says
Jack Carr refers to vehicles as “bullet sponges.”
Westley Wu says
Great video, thanks for sharing!