Partisans, Guerillas, and Irregulars: Historical Archaeology of Asymmetric Warfare

Description

Within the last twenty years, the archaeology of conflict has emerged as a valuable subdiscipline within anthropology, contributing greatly to our knowledge and understanding of human conflict on a global scale. Although archaeologists have clearly demonstrated their utility in the study of large-scale battles and sites of conventional warfare, such as camps and forts, conflicts involving asymmetric, guerilla, or irregular warfare are largely missing from the historical record. Partisans, Guerillas, and Irregulars: Historical Archaeology of Asymmetric Warfare presents recent examples of how historical archaeology can contribute to a better understanding of asymmetric warfare. The volume introduces readers to this growing study and to its historic importance. Contributors illustrate how the wide range of traditional and new methods and techniques of historiography and archaeology can be applied to expose critical actions, sacrifices, and accomplishments of competing groups representing opposing philosophies and ways of life, which are otherwise lost in time. The case studies offered cover significant events in American and world history, including the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, Indian wars in the Southeast and Southwest, the Civil War, Reconstruction, Prohibition, and World War II. All such examples used here took place at a local or regional level, and several were singular events within a much larger and more complex historic movement. While retained in local memory or tradition, and despite their potential importance, they are poorly, and incompletely addressed in the historic record. Furthermore, these conflicts took place between groups of significantly different cultural and military traditions and capabilities, most taking on a “David vs. Goliath” character, further shaping the definition of asymmetric warfare. Dedication Contents List of Illustrations Preface Introduction: An Archaeology of Asymmetric Warfare • Steven D. Smith 1. Border Warfare in Revolutionary Era West Virginia • W. Stephen McBride and Kim A. McBride 2. “Foot Jägers Forward!”: Johann Ewald, Petite Guerre, and the Archaeology of the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge • Wade P. Catts 3. The Battle of Williamson’s Plantation: Huck’s Defeat and the Asymmetric Partisan War in the South Carolina Backcountry • Michael C. Scoggins and Steven D. Smith 4. Francis Marion’s Partisan Community • Steven D. Smith 5. KOCOA Considerations in Asymmetric Warfare: Education and Environment in the Second Seminole War, 1835–1842 • Michelle Sivilich 6. The Black Jack Battle of 1856 in Kansas: Asymmetric Warfare and Archaeological Investigations • Douglas D. Scott 7. Jayhawkers, Bushwhackers, and Lay-Out Gangs: Archaeology and Asymmetric Warfare in the Trans-Mississippi Confederate Home Front during the American Civil War • Carl G. Drexler 8. “Dirty Little Wars” in Northern Mexico and the American Southwest • Charles M. Haecker 9. The Hatfield-McCoyFeud as Asymmetric Warfare: Archaeology at the Randall and Sally McCoy Homestead • Kim A. McBride 10. A Ukrainian Insurgent Army Company Ambush of a Soviet NKVD Battalion, 1945: A Multidisciplinary Study • Adrian Mandzy Conclusion: Reflections on the Historical Archaeology of Asymmetric Warfare • Clarence R. Geier References Cited Contributors Index