The Men Who Fought

Two hundred years ago men grown tired of a king shouldered arms and marched away to a quixotic and seemingly hopeless campaign against the greatest military power in the world. It was all a very long time ago. Of course, it wasn’t so. The men who fought our revolution were farmers, shopkeepers, blacksmiths, accountants, schoolteachers, and businessmen who felt they were being cheated and were willing to do something about it. Unlike their British and Hessian counterparts, most of them had never dreamed of being soldiers. They knew nothing of revetments and flanking maneuvers, and they certainly didn’t want to die. But when a war came, they found they were ready for a war.

For the most part, it wasn’t a business of Saratogas and Yorktowns and Washington and his aides galloping onto the field at Monmouth in the nick of time. Most of the battles they fought ended in defeat. They would count their dead, pull back fifty miles, complain bitterly, and fight again. For eight terrible years they fought a stronger and better-equipped enemy in the forests and fields of the new land they had taken for their own. In the end, they triumphed.

It was commonly believed by soldiers of the British army that the colonial militia consisted of low-quality soldiers who came from the dregs of society. They believed that the militia would not have the strength or organization to match the British War Machine. They were mistaken. In fact, the soldiers of the colonial militia included doctors, teachers, and young boys who contributed greatly to the war effort.

Often, the ranks of the colonial militia were filled by average citizens. Soldiers of the Revolutionary War came from all walks of life and different ethnic groups. Some were native-born colonists and some British immigrants. A majority of the men were Scotch-Irish, as seen in the Pennsylvania regiments. The average soldier of the militia served alongside Rangers, Highlanders, Iroquois Indians, and British regulars.

Much of the British regular army was recruited from the lowest social classes. The enlisted were often petty criminals, beggars, common laborers or subsistence farmers. Because the British officer’s own troops often consisted of these types, they were more than willing to believe the same about the colonial soldier. British officers showed contempt for both the colonial enlisted soldiers and colonial officers alike.

While it was true that many of the militia came from the lower social classes, more than a few were from middle class families. A soldier’s social status and civilian occupation depended greatly upon where he was recruited. Soldiers who came from Pennsylvania were usually laborers. The surviving muster rolls show that about sixty percent of the soldiers listed were laborers. The remaining forty percent were either artisans or skilled workers.

The majority of the artisans from the Pennsylvania colony worked in the cloth, wood, or leather trades. Most of the artisans were cloth workers, while the remainder came from the cooper and carpentry trades. Evidence of this can be seen from the statistics for those soldiers recruited from the Philadelphia area. Soldiers who were recruited from outside Philadelphia had a higher percentage of manual laborers in their ranks. Only about half the number of skilled trades seen in the city were present in the rural areas. About twice as many skilled artisans came from the cities of colonial America.

Soldiers who enlisted from other parts of the colonies had almost the exact opposite percentage of laborers versus artisans. Only twenty six percent of those soldiers who came from the colony of Massachusetts were listed as laborers before entering the militia. Approximately 52% of the Massachusetts soldiers were skilled artisans before enlisting, which was very different from those who enlisted from Pennsylvania.

While statistically most were of English descent, the ranks also included persons of African, American Indian, Austrian, Dutch, French, German, Irish, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Prussian, Scottish, Spanish, and Swedish descent. Motivation for enlistment varied, but many who joined in the fight sought to secure their own blessings of liberty while they fought to gain their country’s independence from Britain. Many recent European arrivals sought fortune and honor by enlisting in the regiments of the middle states they now called home. In fact, two-thirds of the Pennsylvania troops were foreign-born.

Women followed the army to be with their husbands and contribute actively to the cause. The army compensated full-time women followers for rendering such valuable services as sewing, laundering, and nursing. Promises of freedom motivated thousands of enslaved African Americans to join Continental and British forces. In the Continental Army, bound individuals yearning for liberty and wages served alongside freemen in search of a better life.

Continental regiments were integrated and most included patriots of African descent. In order to preserve their culture and prevent encroachment upon their rich western domain, most American Indians sided with the British. Political, religious, and personal ties, however, led some tribes to support the patriots. Hundreds of Indians enlisted in the Continental Army and many others, engaged as scouts in specialized units.

One of the most notable contributions came from the Oneida, who sent aid and a contingent of warriors. Roman Catholics and Jews, though representing a small portion of the Revolutionary War era population, aggressively supported the patriot cause out of a desire to defend both homeland and religious freedom.

Many of the soldiers who fought for the colonies in the Revolutionary War came from well-to-do families. These were not men who saw the army as a career and they did not need to rely on their military income to survive. Of the British officers who served in America during the Revolution, the names Howe and Clinton, Burgoyne and Cornwallis, are the ones that echo across the years. There is some irony to this, since none of those captains—with the possible exception of Cornwallis—had any notable claim to posterity’s attention for their accomplishments on this side of the Atlantic. Yet just as they had in their day the perquisites of rank, so they were accorded the privilege of fame.

The system of which they were a part virtually ensured that high-ranking officers would be aristocrats and men of considerable wealth—the sons of peers, the relatives, friends, and protégés of the rich and powerful. In the British army there were two routes to the top: one was influence, and the other was money. In fact, the route to the top began at the top, with His Majesty George in. The king, as captain general, might or might not appoint a commander in chief of the armed forces, and George— who took considerable pride in exercising his military prerogative—chose not to appoint one. As commander in chief he controlled the price of officers’ commissions, and commissions came dear. An ensign, for instance—the lowest rank in a regiment of foot—was obliged to pay £400 for his commission at a time when it was possible to maintain a family and two servants on £40 a year. Promotion was available as vacancies occurred—either in a man’s own regiment or in another—but all officers had to serve in grade for a period of time before they were entitled to advancement. Then, when opportunity was finally within reach, came the rub. Unless an officer possessed independent means, there was no way to purchase the next higher rank, since it was impossible to save money on the niggardly pay he received.

All of which meant that advancement went to the wealthy. A lieutenant colonelcy in the infantry went for £3,500, and for the same rank in the elite foot guards £6,700 was the going rate—a sum nearly equivalent to the combined salaries of the first lords of the Admiralty and the Treasury. As a result wealthy officers advanced fastest. Lord Cornwallis, for example, who had money, was a lieutenant colonel at the age of twenty-three and a lieutenant general at thirty-eight.

In that army, to be sure, there was another type of officer altogether. Unsung, given only a paltry reward for his services, he made up the backbone of what was for a time the finest fighting force in the world. He knew his limitations in terms of rank and accepted them as best he could, hoping for the one rare exception to the ironbound rule of purchased commissions—an opportunity to draw his superiors’ attention by distinguishing himself in battle.

The best of these officers were trained not only as soldiers but as observers. A man of this stripe had learned from experience the meaning and value of terrain and usually could draw a creditable map or sketch. Years of proximity to the men in the ranks gave him an insight into their capabilities under fire, their limits of endurance, their capacity for improvisation. He knew, or tried to know, his enemy; he discovered quickly enough the shortcomings and weaknesses of his superiors.

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