[HN Gopher] War and Wilderness: British Soldiers in Revolutionar...
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War and Wilderness: British Soldiers in Revolutionary America
Author : diodorus
Score : 50 points
Date : 2025-06-02 06:04 UTC (16 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.historytoday.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.historytoday.com)
| macintux wrote:
| This story from Central America is particularly gruesome.
|
| > In early April, an unfortunate British soldier walked into a
| snake that was hanging from a branch. It bit him in the eye. 'He
| felt such intense pain', a physician noted, 'that he was unable
| to proceed'. Though the man's comrades attempted to suck the
| venom from him, the man died 'with all the symptoms of
| putrefaction': bloated, skin coloured yellow, his eye dissolved.
|
| I can't imagine trying to suck venom from someone's eye.
| jajko wrote:
| A question for folks living there, or visited - are the
| description of fauna at least a bit accurate? Ie oversized
| mosquitoes (where swamps were not completely drained hundred
| years ago). Easily 2x the size of regular central european ones
| (or anywhere I've been really, including malaric ones).
|
| As an European, the biggest ones I've seen were in northern
| Scandinavia. Huge guys, massive swarms of them, sitting on people
| and backpacks in hundreds as they walked. Te only protection was
| thick clothing over everything.
|
| Still, any exposed part of skin had 10-20 bites easily. They were
| harmless, and once I've got used to that weren't itching, as long
| as I didn't accidentally scratched/bruised over them.
| Workaccount2 wrote:
| It hard to say because at least here in New England, a lot of
| the swamps have been long drained.
|
| But if it's anything like the wetlands or swamps that remain -
| you'd have to be utterly naive or completely insane to try and
| cross them on foot. Pools of shallow water among sludgey mounds
| of mud and incrediblely dense and tangled vegetation. It's not
| even something you would consider entering, much less try and
| cross.
| RetpolineDrama wrote:
| Not in most of the US, but the ones in Alaska can mummify a
| water buffalo in under 5 minutes.
|
| Running joke is that the mosquito is "Alaska's state bird"
| npongratz wrote:
| There are no native water buffalo in Alaska. Are you perhaps
| thinking of American bison?
| stevenwoo wrote:
| There are very large mosquitoes that do not consume blood (eat
| other mosquitoes iirc) like the smaller ones. I've seen these
| in Texas.
| nielsbot wrote:
| Are you talking about "mosquito hawks"? That's what we used
| to call them.
|
| You might be thinking to crane flies--dont' think they eat
| mosquitoes.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_fly
| mr_toad wrote:
| > Huge guys, massive swarms of them, sitting on people and
| backpacks in hundreds as they walked.
|
| They sound like sandflies. I wouldn't expect mosquitoes that
| far north.
| mikestew wrote:
| _I wouldn't expect mosquitoes that far north._
|
| Alaska would like a word. Worst mosquitoes (both in size and
| number) I've ever experienced were at the Arctic Circle
| campground. They're so big, they don't even make a buzzing
| sound, it's more like "flap, flap, flap". (I exaggerate only
| slightly.)
| dctoedt wrote:
| > _Alaska would like a word. Worst mosquitoes (both in size
| and number) I've ever experienced ...._
|
| In Alaska's Brooks Mountain Range above the Arctic Circle,
| on a Boy Scout "summer" backpacking trip in 2006, my son
| and his friends amused themselves by slapping each other on
| the back with their gloved hands: They wanted to see who
| could kill the most mosquitoes with one handprint. My son
| won, with 39 dead. (I was there as one of the adult leaders
| -- to steal from another adult leader, my own idea of
| roughing it is when there's bad coffee at the Hampton Inn's
| free breakfast bar ....)
| firesteelrain wrote:
| Florida has some aggressive species like the Aedes aegypti and
| Aedes albopictus that are known for spreading diseases like
| dengue, Zika, and chikungunya. We used to chase after the
| mosquito truck spraying DEET as kids
| nielsbot wrote:
| DEET is a repellant not an insecticide? Was it DDT maybe?
| (Not certain)
|
| They used to drive down the alleys in my hometown with a
| fogging truck to kill mosquitos. The only thing they said was
| "stay inside with the windows closed for a bit". Seems kinda
| crazy in hindsight.
| quercusa wrote:
| In N. Florida I think it was Malathion.
| detourdog wrote:
| We called it the the fog truck.
| firesteelrain wrote:
| I had it wrong. I think it's just what us laymen called it.
| Looked it up, it is a pyrethin based spray
| detourdog wrote:
| I did that in Gainesville in the mid-70s... were we friends?
| firesteelrain wrote:
| Ha I was more of an 80s kid and not in Gainesville
| detourdog wrote:
| Glad to know that others had fun chasing the DDT truck.
| pwg wrote:
| > Ie oversized mosquitoes (where swamps were not completely
| drained hundred years ago).
|
| The native mosquitoes of the DC area can grow to a body length
| of about 1 inch or a bit longer (~3cm). They were the ones that
| were nocturnal (or at least dusk active). This variety is
| likely what revolutionary soldiers would have been writing
| about.
|
| They have largely been out competed by the invasive "black fly"
| version (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aedes_albopictus) that
| is active all day (and so, is much more a nuisance, even if
| they are only about 3/8 inch (~1cm) body length).
| fc417fc802 wrote:
| It's not the geographic location as much as the unimpeded
| wetlands. Undeveloped and frontier areas are much as you
| describe your experience in Scandinavia.
|
| The difference in modern times is even more stark because any
| half civilized government overseeing a region that isn't arid
| engages in fairly aggressive mosquito control on at least a
| yearly basis.
| pizzalife wrote:
| >Still, any exposed part of skin had 10-20 bites easily.
|
| Most locals up north will use "jungle oil" or "hunter's oil" if
| out on a trip. It's a kind of thick black oil you smother any
| exposed skin with. It keeps all the mosquitoes away, but it's
| kind of messy.
| ghc wrote:
| Yes, you can still encounter this in the New England
| wilderness, particularly in central to northern Maine. But in
| New England at least, the settlers essentially clear cut the
| forests and filled in the swamps. Most of the wetlands and old
| growth forests have been completely erased. For the most part,
| what forests we have are not much more than a century old, and
| you constantly run across old foundations and property
| boundaries when you hike through them.
| datax2 wrote:
| I was told a story when I was younger (take it with a grain of
| salt I cannot find anything to corroborate it). The British
| embassy use to offer (maybe still does) "Tropical" pay for
| individuals stationed in temperate climates. Washington D.C. was
| considered a tropical location for years because of the notorious
| swampy and muggy conditions experienced in the warmer seasons.
| Stationed diplomats knew of this hazard/tropic pay and wanted to
| keep it, and when leaders would come to visit they would
| exasperate the conditions by turning off the AC. One year some
| time in the 80's they forgot to turn off the AC during a prime
| minister visit, and at that point the tropical pay was revoked.
|
| Also fun fact they also have a Pub in the basement of the
| embassy.
| cafard wrote:
| This seems to have been urban legend. I think that embassy
| staff might have been entitled to a bit more vacation.
| Unfortunately, I can't offer any source--it would have been a
| publication in the Washington area.
| jamiek88 wrote:
| A common error, but in case it's not a typo / autocorrect -
| it's exacerbate not exasperate.
| ilamont wrote:
| Surprised the harsh winters weren't mentioned. Winters in New
| England, New York, and parts of Pennsylvania are more severe than
| anything most British soldiers would have experienced save for
| those stationed in Canada or from the Scottish Highlands.
|
| Regarding mosquitoes, I don't know if they are bigger but in the
| deep woods in the Eastern US they can be intense, even outside of
| swamplands. I hiked through the northern Adirondacks in July 2019
| and naively brought some eco-friendly mosquito repellent. I paid
| for it dearly over the 5 day trip. They were relentless, and the
| only protection on the trail were hats with nets or heavy duty
| repellent applied throughout the day.
| FuriouslyAdrift wrote:
| Don't forget about the dreaded black flies...
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_fly#/media/File:Black_Fl...
| aurizon wrote:
| Mosquitos are very abundant in the North. Canada, Russia, Siberia
| and Scandinavia all have huge numbers of them, as well as long
| spring summer days. Many British soldiers died as they had zero
| tolerance, and many died with the only wounds being mosquito
| bites and the systemic infections that followed - there was zero
| medication of any kind against infections. Some may have lost so
| much blood that they died from that alone. Having been in
| Northern Ontario's(Canada) temperate jungles, I have experienced
| these swarms. Of course I had DEET and screened hats/clothes.
| Black flies are even worse because they are a lot smaller and
| they crawl into small crevices at ankles/neck and gnaw away a
| piece of flesh to take away = lay an egg. Their cutters are sharp
| and have a numbing saliva so you can not feel the bites and you
| notice the bite when the blood suns down = it does not clot
| because it has anti-clot chemicals along with the numbing
| chemicals also in their saliva. Again good clothes/hats work well
| with velcro snugged all around all ankles/wrists/neck. Nets can
| not be near the skin, as mosquitos can reach across about 1/4"
| air gaps and get you. Get a hole in the net = they find it. Now
| try and work at 90 degrees and 100% humidity = a sweatshop.
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