Re: [SG]? RE: Re: Rescuing livestock

[ Delurk ]
> From: <devans@uneb.edu>
> > I have some doubts that regular livestock would
> > be worth anyone risking their necks.
> 
> Well...how about herding civilians?  As the KV advance, you're trying
to
> get the herd, er, mob to the evacuation transports, and/or escorting
the
> trucks on their way out of the danger.
> ***
> 
> Well, the usual estimation on the list seems to be that the colonists
would
> tend to be pretty competent, militarily. Natch, the US westward
movement
> might belie that; plenty of easily terrorized dirt farmers compared to
the
> much smaller number of gunfighters and mountain men.
> 
> The_Beast

>From the little reading/history shows I've done/seen on the period,
this
is supposedly one of the more prevalent myths concerning the US West.
It makes great cinema though.

You're standard dirt farmer was actually pretty well armed (typically
with at least a shotgun, and often hunting rifle (and sometimes a
pistol)), and as often as not had combat expierence during the American
Civil War.  The gangs succeeded because they were also, as often as not,
trained in raiding and guerilla warfare during the American Civil War.

Just look what happened to Jesse Jame's gang in Northfield Minnesota, to
see what happened when the "defenseless townsfolk" reacted fast enough
to respond in force to a raid.

DarylL