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re: #7 ckkatz
It is true that some countries have used forced marches as _one_ of the ways that they deliberately committed warcrimes. And others have managed to kill large numbers of people this way through incompetence or disinterest.
And yes, moving large masses of humans from one spot to another has historically been fraught with death and disease. (Although not always, the nomads of the Great Eurasian Steppe seemed to have successfully addressed this problem.)
It is also true that the British leadership, trying to maintain a war thousands of miles away from England, faced a manpower problem. They also faced supply problem. Particularly once the French actively intervened on the side of the American Revolution.
My understanding of the biggest problem that the leadership of the American Revolution faced was not manpower shortage, but the ability to supply and feed forces in the field. The theoretical manpower totals for New England alone were around 80,000 militia. The British Army facing them under Burgoyne ran about 8,000.
There were actually lots of benefits to getting soldiers out of the theater of operation where they could be resupplied more easily as supplies were still relatively plentiful. The Americans had to feed the prisoners anyway, And the guards were basically poorly trained militia.
With respect to warcrimes committed during the Revolutionary war…
There certainly was a lot of cruelty during the war. Mohawk Valley, Cherry Valley, Minisink, and Wyoming Valley, the Sullivan Campaign of 1779. The backwoods of North and South Carolina…
And there was also a lot of incompetence and dis-organization. Plus there is the changing concept of warcrimes.
Interesting anecdote…
Jane McCrea was a redheaded New York lady whose brothers were serving in the Revolutionary Army. However, her fiance was another local boy who joined the Loyalist Army as an officer. There was cruelty in what happened to her.
By the way, at the time there were a lot of ties between the ruling classes of England the leadership of the American Revolution. For example, American General Horatio Gates was an English born British Officer. And, there was a significant pool of sympathy for the Revolution in the English ruling classes.
By the way, the British soldiers were generally considered far more effective on a man for man basis than all but the ‘Continental’ grade American soldier. At least as long as their morale held.
Speaking of forced marches, I have the rather rare privilege of attending church with Col. Ben Skardon—104 years old as of a couple weeks ago—who is certainly one of the last survivors of the death march at Bataan. I just shake my head when I consider that I am no longer a young man and Ben was my age in 1972.
