this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2025
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I think artillery is what really caused the insane fatality rates of more recent battles, not so much more accurate small arms fire.
Artillery kills, true, but also, the American Revolutionary War was not quite a normal beast. You see much lower casualty percentages than in, say, the Napoleonic Wars shortly thereafter.
Many of the American troops were militia who were not keen on hanging around and getting killed, which meant that battles often ended before significant casualties were taken by either side. In only a few battles, like Long Island, Camden, and Cowpens, was there a real slug-out between Continental Regulars and Redcoats, and those incidents had much higher casualties.