Raid
Raid
RAID. In the strict strategic or tactical sense, a raid differs from other offensive operations in that the attacker does not intend to hold the objective once he has taken it. Raids can be on a small (tactical) scale, to capture prisoners, knock out gun positions, or disrupt an enemy attack before it starts (a "spoiling attack"). Examples are the operations against Great Brewster Island, Massachusetts, during the Boston siege, and Abercromby's sortie during the Yorktown siege. Strategic raids were those to Lexington and Concord, Bennington, and Paulus Hook. The attack on Stony Point on 16 July 1779 was not planned as a raid, but Washington subsequently decided that the captured position could not be held, so it turned out to be a raid after all.
SEE ALSO Bennington Raid; Great Brewster Island, Massachusetts; Lexington and Concord; Paulus Hook, New Jersey; Stony Point, New York.
