I am trying to figure out how you peel a sack of spuds at 3am in the dark?
There are also several types of guards one must consider in different circumstances.
There are the normal positions of alert members on the parameter, then there are OP and LP positions out beyond the ring of safety. They are for early warning.
But not too far out from the perimeter! You want to be able to hear them scream when the enemy cuts their throats.
The main problem one runs into with guard duty is the extended periods of complete and utter boredom. Stretches of time that go for days when absolutely nothing happens and everyone, including yourself, begins to question the need for guards.
NEVER DROP YOUR SECURITY REQIREMENTS!!!
As a historian I have done a great amount of research on the savage warfare of the American frontier. At one point I did specific research trying to discover how many of the simple picket wall type frontier forts had been breeched or over-run between 1607 and 1900.
I found that there were only three situations where these simple forts fell.
1. Someone opened the gates and let the enemy in
2. The enemy had artillery, guns beyond the typical individual weapon
3. THERE WERE NO GUARDS POSTED
Two of those three things were directly controlled by the leadership or by the people inside the walls.
In at least one instance a total massacre was prevented by the dogs present in the fort. Dogs were so important that many of the settlement groups would not allow a family to join their troop if the new family did not have good dogs! They were a necessity on the frontier and not having them showed a lack of common sense.
http://www.nashville-vacation-fun.com/ba...bluff.html
Also note that there were 400 well armed Indians on the outside and only about 100 settlers on the inside.
The settlers held off a two week siege.
At another fort, about 5 miles away, 12 settlers held off the same 400 man attack force for another 48 hours until help arrived.
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