By comparison to later wars, the battles of the Revolutionary War tended to involve a small number of troops and took place over a small area. But the fighting was no less intense. The fights at Paoli, PA, and Stony Point, NY, illustrate the brutality of these fights. The “Paoli Massacre” took place on the night of September 20, 1777, during the Philadelphia campaign, which led to the British occupation of Philadelphia and the American army’s winter at Valley Forge. The British made a surprise night-time attack on an encampment occupied by 1500 men of General Anthony Wayne’s Pennsylvania division, who had been kept behind to keep their eyes on the Redcoats.
The British commander ordered his soldiers to unload their muskets and rely on the bayonet to avoid an accidental discharge that would ruin the surprise. Two Pennsylvania regiments attempted to form up minutes before the attack, but others appear to have been sleeping. Overall, the British killed about 50 Americans, wounded about 100, and captured 71 – serious losses for a small fight. Years later, one veteran remembered,
Revenge breathed out along the whole line, and ‘Remember Paoli’ was the watchword of Wayne’s men in many future engagements. The men declared they would pay the British for this massacre.
In July 1779, Wayne’s troops had a chance to gain a measure of revenge for Paoli. Wayne took command of the “Corps of Light Infantry,” a new unit that was trained to use loose, open-order, skirmish formations (as opposed to “closed order” involving rigid maneuvers in lines and columns). This allowed light infantry units to perform scouting and special operations missions…