250 and Counting

Tag: Army History

  • Maintaining Motivation–August 11, 1776

    Cover art for August 11, 1776: "George Washington In Prayer at Valley Forge," bronze relief by James Edward Kelly, 1904. This can be seen at the front of Federal Hall in New York City.

    George Washington’s means for maintaining motivation in the Continental Army came from two directions: discipline and stirring rhetoric as a means of providing the troops with something to rally for.

    And his Orders of the Day for this day seem to be focused simultaneously on both.

    As noted elsewhere, Washington could be a stickler for protocol, and it shows in his Orders of the Day, which were usually written in the third person. But there was also some room—not a lot, but some—for a little floridness in his writing. For example, here’s an excerpt from today’s orders:

    The Honorable Continental Congress having been pleased to allow a Chaplain to each Regiment, with the pay of Thirty-three Dollars and one third per month—The Colonels or commanding officers of each regiment are directed to procure Chaplains accordingly; persons of good Characters and exemplary lives—To see that all inferior officers and soldiers pay them a suitable respect and attend carefully upon religious exercises: The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary but especially so in times of public distress and danger—The General hopes and trusts, that every officer, and man, will endeavour so to live, and act, as becomes a Christian Soldier defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country.

    In other words, God is here, we’re paying for him to be here, and God is someone you really don’t want to annoy, so get it together, please.

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  • Flying Camp Rations–August 9, 1776

    Cover art for August 9, 1776: the broadside issued this day outlining Flying Camp rations. via Library Company of Philadelphia.

    The idea to have a flying camp at all belonged to Geroge Washington. He knew that he was going to be facing huge numbers of British soldiers soon, and he proposed having a mobile unit that could show up wherever they were needed.

    While the soldiers came from three specific states, they were intended to be our first national force, with no specific state basis. Thus, they were recognized as “First Battalion,” “Second Battalion” and so on rather than “Burrell’s Connecticut Regiment” or “Pennsylvania Second Battalion”. That said, because there were specific quotas from each state, the various groups tended to have soldiers from those states and could still be identified as such.

    These men were largely able to focus on the defense of New Jersey while the main Continental Army spent its time in New York. However, several men from Maryland and Delaware were assigned to fight in Brooklyn Heights when the Battle of Long Island broke out, and most of them lost their lives. They did, however, manage to prevent the capture of most of Washington’s army, but it could be viewed as a Pyrrhic victory.

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  • Cleaning Up The Act–July 28, 1776

    Cover art for July 27, 1776: An anonymous engraving used to depict colonial-era medical practices.

    Hygiene in the Continental Army was practically nonexistent. As you can imagine, things got pretty ripe around camp, especially in the summer.

    And when people don’t take good care of such things, they’re probably going to wind up sick. Getting sick when you’re supposed to be on duty likely means that you’re going to do your “business” fairly close to where you’re working, This, in turn, is going to have the effect of getting other people sick while simultaneously perpetuating your own illness. This was especially true when such things took place too close to the water source, thereby contaminating that as well.

    Ain’t we got fun!

    There were a few people—the Officer grade men, primarily—who may not have known anything about bacteria, but they were able to see what and who was where, and connect the dots, so they began to take steps to help keep illness down.

    Did it help? Probably not right away, After all, the soldiers were still a rather undisciplined group, and maintaining hygiene in the Continental Army was pretty low on their personal priorities. If we had to guess, things probably abated a little bit, but didn’t really improve until the men that Silas Deane, et. al. came over and got things on track.

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  • The Schuyler Is Falling–July 24, 1776

    Cover art for July 24, 1776: portrait of Philip Schuyler by John Trumbull, 1792. Currently housed at the New York Historical Society.

    Philip Schuyler was part of a prominent New York family, enough that if you have any familiarity with that state’s history, you realize that the Schuyler name keeps popping up, especially during and shortly after the Revolution. (Similarly, the names Schermerhorn and Burr also manage to crop up a lot; Burr is probably the most famous name of the three but there are more Burrs than just Aaron.)

    Schuyler was born in Albany but moved to New Rochelle when he was eight years old, shortly after his father died. He fought in the French and Indian War, and was sent to England for three years afterward to help settle some expenses related to the war.

    Philip Schuyler was elected to the Second Continental Congress but left to become a general in the Continental Army, where he was involved with the failed invasion of Quebec. His health forced him to turn command over to General Montgomery, and in 1777 he returned to Congress.

    Later in life, he served as a Semator in the First US Congress, but lost his bid for re-election to Aaron Burr. (See? Popping up everywhere.) He did return to the Senate a few years later, and remained there until he resigned due to his health.

    Schuyler died at the Schuyler Mansion in Albany on November 18, 1804, four months after his son-in-law, Alexander Hamilton, was killed in a duel (by Aaron Burr) and two days before his 71st birthday. He is buried at Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York, about 500 feet away from President Chester A. Arthur. It’s really a lovely place to visit and see the graves of several notable figures, not all of whom were “big” names historically unless you like to deep-dive into such things.

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  • When Accusation Is A Confession–July 22, 1776

    Cover art for July 22, 1776: General Lee on Horseback, Engraved by Johann Michael Probst, 1790. via Library of Congress.

    That Charles Lee turned out to be giving information to the British is one of those things that feels obvious in retrospect.

    As Mike notes during the episode, Lee was passed over for command of the Continental Army, and even though he was still in a position of importance and command, things like that can eat away at some people.

    Now, by most accounts, and through review of existing documents, Lee generally acquitted himself well in the Southern Department and in New York, although at the time of his capture there he was writing a letter to General Horatio Gates complaining that George Washington was somehow deficient.

    However, his attitude toward the Continental Army continued to deteriorate after his release in 1778. He was held partly responsible for the outcome of the Battle of Monmouth, likely because he was rather capricious with his actions. Because he behaved insubordinately afterward, Lee was court-martialed (at his demand) and found guilty, but given the very light sentence of a year’s suspension from the army. Before the year was out, however, he wrote an angry letter to Congress that resulted in his termination of service.

    It wasn’t until the 1850s that the New York Historical Society discovered a manuscript Lee had written while he was a prisoner of war. It was addressed to both Richard and William Howe, and outlined a plan by which the British could defeat the Continental Army. Whether Charles Lee is specifically guilty of treason is still debated among historians, though he’s commonly been presented as a villain in popular culture of the past 80 years or so.

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  • New Rules For The Army–June 30, 1776

    Cover art for June 30, 1776: an enlistment broadside from that year. Via Boston Public Library.

    Setting new Continental Army rules was oftentimes rather tough, because at that time the enlistments were relatively short. Soldiers would get trained, of course, but because they were undisciplined they didn’t always stay trained, and then their enlistment would be up and now it’s time to train the next set of guys and hope some of it sticks.

    The Continental Army rules that were approved today were designed to affect soldiers’ overall behavior, perhaps in the hope that comporting themselves appropriately would lead to a more disciplined man in general. This met with limited success (that is, not much).

    Interestingly, when Baron von Steuben came along later in the year, the company that he led was visibly different from the others encamped at Valley Forge, with regard to drills, self-policing and preparedness, and it was likely this that caught George Washington’s eye and led to von Steuben writing the manual that Mike cites in today’s episode.

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  • Washington Has A Change Of Heart–December 30, 1775

    Cover art for December 30, 1775: Soldiers at the siege of Yorktown, by Jean-Baptiste-Antoine DeVerger (cropped), watercolor, 1781.

    Back on October 8, the Continental Army determined that Blacks were no longer to be permitted to enlist, and that existing soldiers would not be allowed to re-enlist.

    But on this date, George Washington changed his mind. Was he suddenly an abolitionist? Not a chance. He owned slaves until the day he died. This was a more pragmatic decision. It was borne of the fact that he and his staff suddenly realized that a lot of soldiers were going to end their enlistment come January. That October decision was starting to look rather short-sighted.

    Add to that the fact that word had gotten about about Lord Dunmore’s offer to free slaves who fought on the British side. Now, he really couldn’t do anything for slaves who came from anywhere other than Virginia, but the offer was still hanging out there.

    Finally, it was quite apparent that there was a growing number of Blacks, whether slave or free, who had shown interest in fighting for the Patriot cause.

    It suddenly looked like a whole lot of bodies were getting turned down by the Continental Army for no good reason.

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  • Washington Gets Some Relief–October 18, 1775

    Cover art for October 18, 1775: the Battle at Lexington, Amos Doolittle (engraver) and Ralph Earl (artist). via the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress.

    George Washington was a pretty smart guy. He knew exactly what his army needed, in all aspects. He had a handle on discipline, on supplies, on tactics and any number of other things. Washington surrounded himself with people who were smart, too. This went a long way toward ensuring his success.

    So when his army started to fall apart because some basic needs weren’t getting met, Washington took action. He knew that sending another letter to Congress wasn’t going to help. So instead he met with them directly. And like a dog savaging a toy, Washington grabbed Congress in his (not wooden!) teeth and shook them in a figure-eight.

    Metaphorically, of course. And while he didn’t get everything he sought, he managed to get the important stuff done and the rest of it…well. The rest of it, at least he knew he’d been heard. And he’d live to fight another day.

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  • July 29, 1775: Law and Moral Order

    Cover art for July 29, 1775: the insignia of the Army JAG Corps and the United States Army Chaplain Corps Branch Plaque (via Wikipedia)

    George Washington didn’t have a ton of military experience when he was named Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. But it’s clear that he gave the position a great deal of thought as he made his way from Philadelphia to Boston. When he arrived, he clearly had a lot of ideas about what an army should look like. Furthermore, he had ideas regarding the overall structure of things and the institutions that should be in place.

    Shortly after officially taking the position, Washington began petitioning Congress for various titles and positions, and groups. And it appears that Congress recognized that his ideas had merit, because there was very little that they actively turned down. (Obviously, there were some things that they were unable to provide because of shortages here and there, but they were typically behind him.)

    And today, Washington was able to get the ball rolling on two of them.

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  • June 30, 1775: Army Regulations Take Shape

    Cover art for June 30, 1775: Recruiting poster for the new Continental Army.

    With the army being literally only a few weeks old, it was necessary to put together some regulations for this group, to ensure consistency throughout the Colonies.

    Interestingly enough, as the rules were revised over the next several years, a pattern of using another army’s regulations as a template began to emerge. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing: take what works and build on it, yes?

    A quick note about the cover art: it’s a recruitment poster from about that time, because a true Army Manual did not emerge until the third version was published in 1779.

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