The Coercion used in Continental Army Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

The Coercion used in Continental Army - judge ExampleVery little scholarly work had been done on military afflict and enforcement in the American army during the Revolutionary War. The neglect is not for lack f source material. Thousands f prim books, manuals f instruction, court martial transcripts, and otherwise primary sources exist in private collections and in local anesthetic and national repositories, including the National Archives and the Library f congress. Most f this material is readily purchasable to researchers, and some f it, most notably in George Washingtons papers, has appeared in print. cellblock is the first historian to go steady the primary sources in depth, however, and he has written a pioneering study f a very definitive element in the military history f the Revolutionary War.Washington was no touchy-feely general. As Ward explains, he developed his understanding f military discipline from study and observation f British practices during the French an d Indian War. Discipline during that war followed standard eighteenth-century practice. Penalties were cruel--from whipping and riding the wooden dollar bill to public hanging--and intended to terrify rather than to correct. Washington was as enthusiastic as any other officer in applying this discipline, often more so. And in the Revolutionary War, he made tough discipline a centerpiece f his military philosophy. The relatively democratic, easy-going methods common to the New England militia in wee 1775 were not for him and on taking command f the Continental Army later that year, he right away instilled an authoritarian, hierarchic system that came down hard on everything from cowardice and desertion to foul language, gambling, and female ring followers.Wards focus is less on policy formulation than on the effect that Washingtons discipline--developed in consultation with Congress and the generals--had on the common soldiers. This emphasis on the average man helps to keep the book far more fresh and exciting than any purely administrative study. At all levels, from officers guards, pickets, and police, to provost guards, executioners, and field musicians, Ward explores what it meant to withstand under Continental Army discipline, making use f numerous interesting anecdotes. At times, Wards inclination to hop from one topic to another makes for haphazard reading, but the narrative, though at times awkwardly written, never loses interest. What is missing is a coherent overall sense f how military discipline evolved during the war, and especially f how lessons learned during the course f the conflict influenced the development f U.S. Army discipline in succeeding eras. The book lacks a concluding chapter to bring all f the loose ends together, instead closing curtain rather abruptly with a discussion f military executions. Still, there is no question that Ward has written the definitive study f American military discipline during the Revolutionary War.Th e inability to adequately equip the troops stemmed from the structure f the Commissary Department, and its adjunct, the Quartermaster Department. Military officers normally headed these departments, but