There is a perception that in the US War of Independence, an army of American volunteers defeated a professional British Army.
Hmmmm.
When I lived in the US in the 1990s, I was surprised to read (initially in an article by Dave Barry in the Miami Herald, later in more academic sources) that there were more American colonists fighting for the British, than for the Revolutionary side. Washington's army in fact had four French soldiers for every American volunteer- the cost of supplying this army being so great it ruined the French economy, and led to the mass starvation that triggered the French Revolution.
So it looks like a professional Franco-US Army defeated a British-led partisan army!
While we're talking about volunteers, does anyone else find it a really difficult word to type? I seem to start with voulnteers, then get worse- I almost expect to proof-read this post and find I've been talking about wars between vol-au-vents and profiteroles!
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