Military Review English Edition July-August 2014 | Page 79

America’s Frontier Wars:
Lessons for Asymmetric Conflicts
Congressman Ike Skelton
The Honorable Ike
Skelton, U.S. House of
Representatives, Democrat,
Missouri, represented
Missouri’s Fourth
Congressional District
from 1977 to 2011. He
was the ranking member on
the House Armed Services
Committee. The late
Congressman Skelton wrote
several articles for Military
Review over the years.

I

n July 1755, Major General Edward Braddock,
commander in chief of all British forces in North
America and a 45-year career soldier, was killed
along with 900 of his men by a smaller French and
Indian force. On his way to capture Fort Duquesne,
Pennsylvania, Braddock had split his force into two
divisions. Because of the difficulty of crossing the wilderness, they opened a distance of 60 miles between the
“flying column” division of rapidly moving soldiers and
a support column hauling “monstrously heavy eightinch howitzers and twelve-pound cannons” completely
unsuited to the terrain.
The lead column stretched a mile in length and
was attacked on the far side of the Monongahela River
by Indians streaming along either British flank and
hiding within the forest they had long used as hunting grounds. The British responded using traditional
tactics—continuously trying to form companies and
return fire but only concentrating their number further
MILITARY REVIEW  July-August 2014

Fort Leavenworth’s
Combined Arms Research
Library is being rededicated
as the Ike Skelton Combined
Arms Research Library.
In honor of this event we
are republishing this article
by the late congressman.
“America’s Frontier Wars:
Lessons for Asymmetric
Conflicts” originally
appeared in the SeptemberOctober 2001 edition of
Military Review.

for Indian attack. Braddock ordered forward the main
body of his troops, which then collided with retreating
elements ahead. In the resulting confusion, 15 of the
18 officers in the advance party were picked off. Still,
the remaining forces continued to fight the way they
were taught: maintaining platoon formations and firing
together even as they drew heavy fire to the line from
well-hidden Indians. It was not until Braddock himself
was shot in the back that the British broke in retreat,
carrying off the body of their commanding officer.1

Asymmetric Warfare:
Yesterday and Tomorrow
Why do I begin an article addressing tomorrow’s
conflicts with an account of a battle fought two and
a half centuries ago? As an avid student of history, I
believe it is critically important for us to understand
that asymmetric warfare is not something new. In fact,
it has been a recurring theme of American military
77