4 ms·

The impression I'm getting from new historical findings, is that the Continental Army basically took anyone who could stand up straight and shoot.

diminoten 8y ago
And got super lucky in who ended up being the folks in charge. Or maybe Washington really was great at identifying talent.
- protomyth 8y ago
  Well, given the Generals he didn’t like turned out to be pretty bad, I tend to think he knew who was actually good.
lainga 8y ago
European officers knew it, too, and had a habit of coming to America and demanding to be commissioned into the upper ranks. Von Steuben initially tried that, was refused, and only came back as a volunteer because rumours of homosexuality had kneecapped his chances of promotion back in Prussia.
skybrian 8y ago
They weren't so keen on officers recruited by Silas Deane who didn't speak English and lacked military experience. Lafayette got in partly by offering to serve without pay.
markbnj 8y ago
Sure, and they also had a big problem in that the initial terms of enlistment were fairly short, as was common with militias, and given the conditions and lack of monetary support from the fledgling government it was difficult to get soldiers to reenlist. I don't think these issues were unique to one side, though. The British basically perfected the art of rounding up drunks and vagrants and turning them into soldiers and sailors. Anyway, the continental army was a ragged mess for literally the entire war. If it weren't for the staggering incompetence of British generals and the ancient animosities of European powers who saw the colonies as a pawn, the continentals might very well have lost. In the end if there's a tl;dr on the American Revolution it probably reads something like "Thanks for the new country, France!"
- Bayart 8y ago
  >The British basically perfected the art of rounding up drunks and vagrants and turning them into soldiers and sailors. Britain had the (mostly forgotten) specificity of having a small population. Although it's fairly similar to France now, for a very long time the difference was four or five times. It only broke through the glass sealing and started exploding around the time of the American Revolution. Their foreign policies put extreme demographic pressure onto British society.

diminoten 8y ago

And got super lucky in who ended up being the folks in charge. Or maybe Washington really was great at identifying talent.

protomyth 8y ago
Well, given the Generals he didn’t like turned out to be pretty bad, I tend to think he knew who was actually good.

lainga 8y ago

European officers knew it, too, and had a habit of coming to America and demanding to be commissioned into the upper ranks. Von Steuben initially tried that, was refused, and only came back as a volunteer because rumours of homosexuality had kneecapped his chances of promotion back in Prussia.

skybrian 8y ago

They weren't so keen on officers recruited by Silas Deane who didn't speak English and lacked military experience. Lafayette got in partly by offering to serve without pay.

markbnj 8y ago

Sure, and they also had a big problem in that the initial terms of enlistment were fairly short, as was common with militias, and given the conditions and lack of monetary support from the fledgling government it was difficult to get soldiers to reenlist. I don't think these issues were unique to one side, though. The British basically perfected the art of rounding up drunks and vagrants and turning them into soldiers and sailors. Anyway, the continental army was a ragged mess for literally the entire war. If it weren't for the staggering incompetence of British generals and the ancient animosities of European powers who saw the colonies as a pawn, the continentals might very well have lost. In the end if there's a tl;dr on the American Revolution it probably reads something like "Thanks for the new country, France!"

Bayart 8y ago
>The British basically perfected the art of rounding up drunks and vagrants and turning them into soldiers and sailors. Britain had the (mostly forgotten) specificity of having a small population. Although it's fairly similar to France now, for a very long time the difference was four or five times. It only broke through the glass sealing and started exploding around the time of the American Revolution. Their foreign policies put extreme demographic pressure onto British society.