Fighting in the forests of North America presented challenges to Europeans unfamiliar with the undeveloped frontier. Europe had been cleared of most old growth trees hundreds of years earlier, and soldiers were trained to fight in open fields and moved along well established roads. The opening campaigns during the French & Indian War grimly illustrated how regular regiments from Britain were unprepared for operations against the French and their native allies. Threats presented themselves at every rock outcropping, dense thicket, and turn in the trail. On occasion native warriors would even scout from high among the treetops. A daring marksman might even find a target...perhaps a red-coated officer riding his well appointed mount.