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Chapter Eight: Siege Warfare
- University of South Carolina Press
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Chapter Eight SIEGE WARFARE While the popular conception of military action during the American Revolution is one of armies clashing upon open fields or of small parties skirmishing in the countryside, siege warfare also comprised much of the fighting during the war. Sieges took place in varying degrees in almost every year of the Revolution. The Americans’ lack of military experience early in the war did not prevent them from besieging British strongholds. Washington’s army surrounded Boston during the winter of 1775–76 and kept the British within its confines, while General Richard Montgomery besieged the British fort at St. Johns, and Benedict Arnold laid siege to Quebec. In the campaigns of 1777, the British used siege tactics to wrest Fort Ticonderoga from the Americans and to reduce the forts on the Delaware River, which protected the southern approaches to Philadelphia. The Americans and French attempted to besiege the British post at Newport, Rhode Island, in August 1778 while their joint effort against Savannah in 1779 ended disastrously. As with major land battles of the Revolution, traditional European methods dictated the tactics employed in siege warfare. An understanding of the science and intricacies of eighteenth-century siege warfare is central to an understanding of British operations against Charleston in 1780. The methodology of siege warfare used by all combatants in the Revolution had emerged in the previous century. Sebastien le Prestre de Vauban, chief engineer to Louis XIV, modified the European system of capturing fortresses, formulating an “exact scheme” for the attacking army’s approaches. His ideas were to be a mainstay of siege warfare for two centuries. Prior to the introduction of Vauban’s system, European armies laying siege to enemy fortresses constructed meandering trenches, which had no standardization to them and which h 110 / A GALLANT DEFENSE often did not protect the soldiers of the attacking army. Vauban’s system utilized transverse support trenches and approach trenches to propel the attacker toward the fortifications of the enemy garrison with some degree of security for the besieging army’s soldiers.1 The transverse support trenches Vauban devised were known as parallels, because the besieger constructed them essentially parallel to the lines or works of the enemy. The attacking army sequentially dug three or four parallels, one in front of the other, which in turn moved them ever closer to the enemy fortress. The attacker placed cannon in batteries along the length of each parallel to batter the opponent and his works. When they had completed the first parallel anywhere from 600 to 1,000 yards from the enemy lines, the attacking army pushed forward approach trenches from the front of it. Approach trenches were referred to as saps, or zigzags, because they generally wound forward in a zigzag pattern to protect the men digging them and the men posted in them. An approach trench aimed directly at the enemy fortress allowed the defenders to fire right down the trench, but the zigzag trench came in at an angle, giving the attacking soldiers a modicum of security against enemy fire. In general, the besieging army did not build approach trenches as sturdily as parallels since they were primarily intended as a means of movement rather than as a place from which to cannonade the enemy. When the saps reached a point approximately 300 to 500 yards from the opponent’s lines, working parties opened a second parallel. As cannon from the first and second parallels battered the city or fortress, the besiegers began new approach trenches from the second parallel, constructing a third parallel at the heads of these trenches. If enough space existed between the third parallel and the enemy lines, a fourth parallel might be utilized, but three was more typical. In some cases, the attacking army pushed saps from the third parallel, not as an avenue to a fourth parallel but as a way to breach the enemy defenses or as a point to launch an assault from if that became necessary.2 Customarily, the two sides remained in contact throughout the siege. Before commencing siege operations, the commander of an attacking army often gave the defenders notice of his intention to take the town by summoning the garrison to surrender. Once the siege was underway [44.200.26.112] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 12:33 GMT) Siege Warfare / 111 and the besieger’s guns had sufficiently battered the town or fortress, that commander would again give them an opportunity to...