8

   The Battle of Saratoga became an important, morale boosting victory for the Colonial army. British General, John Burgoyne, had come south from Canada in the summer of 1777 with about 5000 troops in hopes of meeting General Howe's trooops near New York. However, Howe was unaware of this planned hookup and had left to seige Philadelphia, unintentionally abandoning Burgoyne's advancing forces. The Continental army was able to block Burgoyne's travel path and then surround Burgoyne's troops, forcing his surrender on October 17, 1777. After many losses, stalemates, and close-calls, the Colonial vicotry at Saratoge provided the Colonial patriots with a dramatic victory, and, thus, increased the morale of much of the continental forces to fight on. This important battle helped to convince France, and later, Spain, to side with the American patriots in its war with Great Britain.




5.
Citizenship embodies the ideal that a person accepts the laws, government, culture, and 'ways of life' of a particular society or state. They are ordinary, non-military people within that society, and, thus, are loyal and willing to defend the state in which they live. Quite often, as in the American Revolutionary War, public calls were made for citizens to take up arms in defense against the actions of the British Army. Citizen-soldiers operated outside of the military corps, though they were frequently used, or allowed, to participate in the opening of stages of ground warfare through various methods of skimishing and even guerilla warfare. Their random, quick strike, and close up attacks could disrupt the front ranks, and indeed the morale, of opposing armies in non-traditional ways. In effect, they were regionally based citizens who were ready and willing to take up arms to fight an enemy force at any cost. It was felt that one of the duties required in being a citizen was to defend the homeland communities or nation from invading forces. Citizen soldiers generally had much at stake and they fought with great morale, will, and committment, as they sought to protect their rights and liberities of their neighbors and themselves. Skirmishers used more 'open line' tactics, not conforming to any regimented style of fight, and frequently were ahead of the front lines, providing initial firepower directed at organized, closely-packed enemy formations. It was common for citizens, who wished to fight, to take this direct approach and to help the war effort, while still retaining their claim as 'citizens' and not soldiers of an organized army. The Prussian armies of the early 19th century also had used this tactic of "Landwher" (citizen soldiers) when it made it obligatory for a potential fighter to chose whether to serve in the army or in a citizen militial. These citizen based militia's, featuring skirmishers, were soon copied and used by Napoleon

7.
  The advent of broadside gunnery on naval warships, where cannon fire was directed from the lower decks along the sides of the ship, led to the style of navigation and attacking formations known as 'line-ahead' tactics. A fleet, or number of ships, would follow the lead ship "in a line", one behind the other, and navigate to run parellel to enemy warships. This would allow for the most constant volley of cannon-fire and assault. These line-ahead formations provided for better tactical navigation and the maximization of firepower. The admiral or commander of a fleet of ships would generally occupy the lead ship, with other ships following behind at approximently 100 yard intervals. Keeping this 'line-ahead' formation kept fleets from straying off of formation as the lead ship would ''direct" the course of the fleet as it sailed through battlezones. The 'Fighting Instructions' of the British Royal Navy dictacted exacting procedures for the following of this procedure, with squadrons of ships divided into "van, center, and rear" formations, giving each ship an open, straight-across view and field of fire. Though this offered a great ability of attack through continious fire, it would usually not result in the total destruction of an enemy fleet, because of the rigid demands of sailing 'line-ahead' prevented any maneuvering off the straight course. Ship commanders did not make direct assualts, inward turns, flanking attempts or take advantage of any scenerious that  may have presented themselves where perhaps a change of course by some of the ships may have been able to more effectively destroy opposing ships.


6.

Napoleon's introduction of the "army corps" became the foundation of his style of military manuevering. Napoleon organized his armed forces into smaller, self-contained armies, each containing calvary, artillery batteries, and infantry divisions. This allowed these 'complete mini-armies' to travel using separate routes to arrive at the planned point of attack. Each corps had the ability to defend itself as it traveled, and it could arrive at a given point to meet other 'corps' arriving from different angles of approach. 


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