ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates, not on the familiar narratives, but on an analysis of the battles of the three eighteenth-century campaigns. Battles are risky affairs. However, during the conflict in the American colonies in the 1770s, field armies were far smaller and more akin to those employed in the Jacobite campaigns, though in 1778, there were 25,000 regulars in the colonies, only a fraction were ever assembled together to fight a battle. Relatively small numbers of troops were present at these battles. Troops were rarely concentrated until the moment just before the battle. Their purpose was to act as mobile shock troops and to charge with sword, primarily against enemy cavalry, and also to pursue fleeing enemy at the end of a successful action, or to cover a retreat. One of the crucial determinants of a battle is morale. Armies, who technically won, by retaining the field while the other retired, might lose higher casualties.
