Good point about the Indian wars, John T. From 1777 - 1787, in Kentucky alone, just over 1,000 settlers were killed or captured. The Shawnee were one of the main opponents in this phase of expansion yet by 1800, their power was pretty much negated. The likes of George Rogers Clark, Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton, experts in COIN at the time, saw to it. To give an example of their daring and ability, in 1789, Clark sent 3 scouts deep into Shawnee territory, Chillocothe to be exact, their principal village. That would be the equivilant of sending 3 men up to Fallujah during the initial invasion of Iraq to do some scouting/recon. They were that confident of their ability and that willing to take necessary, unexpected risks. Boonesborough and Franks Fort had been repeatedly hit in force and there was considerable marauding and Boone and Clark got wind of another force massing to the north and sent 3 men on a recon mission. Now that's classic, affective COIN doing the unexpected, high risk with the potential for real success. What Shawnee war leader would expect 3 white men to come snoopin' and poopin' deep into their turf? The mission was both a success and failure as Clark didn't expect his scouts to disobey ROE. They got up there, did their recon then took some Shawnee horses. Talk about balls, huh? Anyway, this apparently made the Shawnees more angry than the simple fact of scouting them. They gave chase, captured Kenton and killed my ancestrol Grandfather, Alexander Montgomery, at the Ohio river but the third man, whose name slips my mind, got away and returnd to his CO with the Intel. Typical of the asymentrical warfare our nation has had to engage in and the opponents we have had to face, the Shawnees repeatedly slapped Kenton's face with Grandpa's scalp ( at least they didn't put Grandpa's underwear on his head) held Kenton captive and frequently tortured him before he was able to escape. He ran the gauntlet 3 times. They didn't do beheadings back then, they burned people at the stake instead.


There are lots of details and particulars left out in reports such as this that essentially claim failure of our Nation but there is an accumulation of lessons learned, there is collective imprinting that becomes self-sustaining, creative and proactive in and of itself from lessons learned. It endures the test of time and that's what counts. Reports such as this may well cite the battle of the Rosebud and Little Bighorn as failures, but do they address the change of tactics needed for successful COIN? Following the defeats in the summer of 1876, the hostile were finally pursued in the winter. The troops were issued buffalo coats and winter logistics were put in place. In the spring of 77', Crazy Horse and Gall were done fighting and only Sitting Bull held out but was spending most of his time in Grandmother's Land (Canada). Some of the world's best light cavalry were done fighting by the summer of 1877, one year after two major defeats.