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I wanted to add to Lieutenant_Charon's very well done explanation of late 18th cent combat that they did use earthen defenses in the American revolution. They would build them square and mount guns on top. There are still some that haven't been plowed under in Pennsylvania where I grew up.

I also wanted to add that it wasn't just Lafayette, but also Von Steuban and Casimir Pulaski. The Pole Casimir Pulaski did wonders for the American cavalry. The Prussian Von Steuben introduced Sanitation and precision drilling. Lafayette, though important, was still relatively inexperienced when he arrived at Valley Forge. So it is fairer to say they needed French, Prussian, and Polish help to win the war, as these three men turned the revolutionaries into an actual army. Again, I'm not arguing with the gist of Charon's posting, but I feel it's unfair to leave out Casimir Pulaski and Baron Friedrich Von Steuban, both of whom were at least as important as Lafayette, yet get left out of many accounts.

I feel that we do the men themselves and history a disservice when we cut out the "Father of American Calvary" and guy who introduced latrines and precision drilling to US armed forced just because one was gay and the other may have been.