American Legions

The Legion of the United States was an early combined arms force fielded after the disasterous early campaigns in the Northwest Indian War. For more info see here.

http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legion_of_the_United_States

So WI the US kept this military system instead of reverting to the more traditional regimental system? Is the combined arms doctrine superior at this time in history dominiated by linear tactics?
 
Very interesting! Had to do some reading.

Seems to me that the Legion could certainly handle the irregulars on the American continent through the beginning of the War of 1812. Most of the battles of that war involved relatively small units, and if you were to substitute a sublegion of about 3000 for some group of 3000-5000 OTL regulars, and supplement it with local militia, you could go a long ways toward improving America's outcome. The keys would be a constantly improving level of training and an "institutional memory" of combined arms tactics.

Now, when you get to massed armies (maybe New Orleans, the Mexico City campaign, and into the ACW), you probably see more of a regimented OOB and less of a combined arms layout. Here, the army will definitely rely on its training level. Not sure how two armies with a "Legion" mentality fight it out on a small-unit (say, up to 5000 a side) campaign rather than the gigantic set-piece battles.

After the ACW, the Legion would once again be an agent of Manifest Destiny all the way to the Pacific.

I'll have to think (such as it is) about the Legion concept in the 20th century some other time, although there might be some interesting parallels with the German Army einheit (?) concept of combined arms at the small-unit level.
 
OKay starting with the War of 1812, William Henry Harrison served in Wayne's Legion during the Fallen Timbers campaign, so when he takes over the North-western army he could've reorganized it into a new Legion. Does anyone have any idea how this would affect the outcome of the battles at Fort Meigs or Fort Stephenson?
 
Meigs and Stephenson were strategic failures for the British, but I am not sure that Harrison, even with a Legion organization, could have accomplished much beyond cleaning out the Northwest Territory. If you take away the last British garrisons prior to the end of the war, then the United States may negotiate a bigger chunk of the Northwest and points west (probably beginning with the remainder of the Mississippi watershed). I don't think it would be as dramatic as, say, all of northwestern North America.
 
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