It's Not How Hard You Try...
The famous basketball coach Bobby Knight is alleged to have said, "it's not how hard you try, it's how hard you prepare." Now, Coach Knight spent most of his career at Indiana University, arch-rivals to my alma mater the University of Illinois, so I'm not a big fan of the coach. But, to give the devil his due, Coach Knight is right on with this one.
I was reminded of this because I just finished reading a book entitled Flotilla: The Patuxent Naval Campaign in the War of 1812. It's an academic book, intended for professional historians, but I found it quite engaging. Relevant to this post is a quote by a British admiral who was in charge of Royal Navy operations in this area. He said in a report back to England, "this country couldn't be more unprepared for war."
The admiral should know - he spent the summers of 1813 and 1814 sailing up and down the Chesapeake Bay (and pretty much every river, creek, and kinda-wet piece of ground around the bay) looting and burning. Heatstroke, heart attacks and accidents caused way more casualties then the Americans, largely because either the militia wasn't where he was or if they were, they immediately beat feet elsewhere.
The militia ran because they were completely unprepared. Facing veterans of the Napoleonic Wars, the Americans had no ships, few artillery pieces, a shortage of muskets and no training. Command was divided among two state militias, the US Navy, the US Army, and the independent Flotilla Service. The three "professional" military organizations were ill-equipped and with the exception of the Flotilla Service poorly-led.
As a result of this lack of preparation, not much could be done to stop the British from going where they wished and doing what they wanted to. But perhaps more importantly, this lack of preparation meant that much of what could be done wasn't. A sense of helplessness and futility pervaded the US defenders, such that simple things like stationing artillery at natural choke-points wasn't even attempted.
The only exception to this was the defense of Baltimore, and that was in large part because the City of Baltimore had made significant independent efforts to defend themselves. In war, in business, in life, prior preparation leads to improved performance.
This entry was originally posted at https://chris-gerrib.dreamwidth.org/695274.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
I was reminded of this because I just finished reading a book entitled Flotilla: The Patuxent Naval Campaign in the War of 1812. It's an academic book, intended for professional historians, but I found it quite engaging. Relevant to this post is a quote by a British admiral who was in charge of Royal Navy operations in this area. He said in a report back to England, "this country couldn't be more unprepared for war."
The admiral should know - he spent the summers of 1813 and 1814 sailing up and down the Chesapeake Bay (and pretty much every river, creek, and kinda-wet piece of ground around the bay) looting and burning. Heatstroke, heart attacks and accidents caused way more casualties then the Americans, largely because either the militia wasn't where he was or if they were, they immediately beat feet elsewhere.
The militia ran because they were completely unprepared. Facing veterans of the Napoleonic Wars, the Americans had no ships, few artillery pieces, a shortage of muskets and no training. Command was divided among two state militias, the US Navy, the US Army, and the independent Flotilla Service. The three "professional" military organizations were ill-equipped and with the exception of the Flotilla Service poorly-led.
As a result of this lack of preparation, not much could be done to stop the British from going where they wished and doing what they wanted to. But perhaps more importantly, this lack of preparation meant that much of what could be done wasn't. A sense of helplessness and futility pervaded the US defenders, such that simple things like stationing artillery at natural choke-points wasn't even attempted.
The only exception to this was the defense of Baltimore, and that was in large part because the City of Baltimore had made significant independent efforts to defend themselves. In war, in business, in life, prior preparation leads to improved performance.
This entry was originally posted at https://chris-gerrib.dreamwidth.org/695274.html. Please comment there using OpenID.