Learning on the job?

One aspect of the #RevWar which often receives less than its fair share of attention is training – specifically, officer training. European nations throughout the #18thcentury were beginning to warm to the idea of preparing their general for the job before actually sending them into the field, and one way of helping them to learn was for experienced soldiers to write their own books.

Versions of this posthumous memoir by Marshal Saxe (French commander at the Battle of Fontenoy) were found in many British officers’ personal libraries. Ira Gruber has argued that British generals were heavily influenced by Saxe’s ‘prudent’ approach to warfare, preferring sieges, manouvres, and defensive engagements to minimise risk to his forces. This was in stark contrast to the less cautious (and more aggressive) war that the British government wanted, and needed, to secure a quick peace.

As Gruber has noted, there is a distinct irony in the British using the French way of war in such a manner. On one hand, this represents widening British interest in the increasingly professional European approach to warfare; on the other, it meant that the French were defeating the British even before white coats were sighted in the United States!

Further reading includes: Ira Gruber, Books and the British Army, (2010); Christopher Duffy, The Military Experience in the Age of Reason (1987); John Houlding, Fit for Service (1981)