01-10-2016, 12:59 PM
(01-10-2016, 10:00 AM)John1 Wrote: I think a protracted discussion about timelines that concludes with a statement that a rebellion on which the lives andĀ fates of entire tribes is constrained to a movement rate of a mereĀ 8 miles a day needs to be challenged, it is too relaxed and entirely lacks the urgency which would accompany any rebellion
What you cannot get away from is that wives and wagons were present at the final battle and those in sufficient numbers as to impede the retreat of the rebel army. They would have got there at the speed at which draught animals, plausibly oxen, will travel which, again plausibly, has been put at eight miles a day. I do not at all discount the likelihood that elements of the warband could have raided and foraged some miles ahead and to the sides of the line of advance, although other elements would almost certainly remained behind to defend the column of wagons, if necessary. What is almost vanishingly unlikely is that the raiding elements would have advanced 30 or 40 miles ahead of the main body and then had to wait for three or four days for it to catch up. What is far more likely is that the raiding parties would have remained in contact with the main body and returned to it each night with their spoils. The speed of a convoy is the speed of the slowest member, in this case the wagons.
Michael King Macdona
And do as adversaries do in law, -
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
(The Taming of the Shrew: Act 1, Scene 2)
And do as adversaries do in law, -
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
(The Taming of the Shrew: Act 1, Scene 2)