The Irregulars During the Revolution

The American Revolution today is thought of as a gentlemanly war, one generally following European rules of lawful warfare. On one level, it was. The regular armies of both sides followed Jus in Bello (justice in war) concepts set out by Hugo Grotius and Emmer de Vattel after the Thirty Years' War. Yet nine-tenths of the fighting was not done by regular armies. It was conducted by irregulars.

War Without Mercy: Liberty or Death in the American Revolution, by Mark Edward Lender and James Kirby Martin, tells of that other war, the fighting conducted by civilians, militias, Indians, and irregular groups.

That story is bloody, the tale of fighting an existential war, where the stakes are literally liberty or death. It shows how vicious warfare becomes when fought by those unconstrained by anything except the desire for survival.

The book opens by discussing the origins of the rules of war and their implications. A chapter looking at how the regular forces of both sides conducted their war within the confines of Jus in Bello rules follows, including its shortcomings when dealing with a rebellion. The next five chapters explore the war in different theaters, showing irregular warfare’s role.

One chapter focuses on the British raid on New London. Led by Benedict Arnold, its aim was to destroy the infrastructure used by revolutionary privateers. It showed how frightful warfare fought within Jus in Bello gets, in terms of civilian property used to support warfare and destroyed during fortress assaults.

The other four chapters focus on irregular warfare. Two examine the American frontier, in the Old Northwest Territory and Upstate New York. Two others look at irregular warfare between pro-independence Whig and loyalist Tory factions in New Jersey and the Southern colonies.

All share a dreary pattern. Suppression by one side triggered retribution by the other. This led to more violent responses, yielding more violent reaction. Irregular violence spiraled out of control, reducing the territory to a wasteland.

War Without Mercy demonstrates that once existential war replaces Jus in Bello rules, war becomes war to the knife and the knife to the hilt, with desolation left in its wake. It also shows that civil wars – which is what the American Revolution was for American Whigs and Tories – are most likely to devolve into existential war. A warning, it shows what can happen if today’s civil unrest in the United States grows into active warfare. No one will like the results.

“War Without Mercy: Liberty or Death in the American Revolution,” by Mark Edward Lender and James Kirby Martin, October 2025, Osprey Publishing, 288 pages, $32.00 (Hardcover), $22.40 (E-book) $15.26 (Audiobook)

This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.