Indiana. Military History Journal
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.. a IT-� · ' INDIANA. MILITARY HISTORY JOURNAL INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY Volume II Number I January, 1986 F521_146_VOL11 N01 Indiana Military History Journal is published by the Military History Section of the Indiana Historical Society, 315 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis 46202. Ed itorial offices for the Journal are at the Department of History, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907. Gunther E. Rothenberg is ed itor. All contributions should be sent to this address. Manuscripts should be prepa red in accordance with The University of Chicago A Manual of Style (13th edition). The Indiana Historical Society, the Military History Section, and the editor disclaim responsibility for statements of fact or opinions made by contributors. The Indiana Military History Journal serves as the organ of the Military History Section and carries news of the Section as well as articles, documents, pictures, and book reviews relating to Indiana's military past, the military history of the Old Northwest, and the activities of Hoosiers in the armed forces of the United States in war and peace. In addition, the Journal will carry articles on military history topics in general which impacted on the state or region. It is hoped that the Journal will increase the reader's appreciation of the military heritage of the state and the nation. Military History Section Boa rd of Directors Mr. Wayne··Sanford, Chairman Mr. Thomas B. Williams Ill 8718 Old Town Lane Drive 3203 Dogwood Lane Indianapolis 46260 Carmel 46032 Col. Jerry L. Sargent (USA, Ret.), Vice-Chairman Col. William Scott (USA, Ret.) 334 Grovewood Place 6433 Hoover Rd., Apt. A Beech Grove 46 107 Indianapolis 46260 Dr. Gunther E. Rothenberg, editor Maj. William J. Watt Department of History 2240 Rome Drive Apt. B Purdue University Indianapolis 46208 West Lafayette 47906 Rev. William 0. Harris Dr. George W. Geib 723 Clarendon Place 4737 Cornelius Avenue Indianapolis 46208 Indianapolis 46208 Col. J. Robert Sutherlin (USA, Ret.) 6078 Garver Road Indianapolis 46208 The Journalis sent to members of the Indiana Historical Society who participate in the Military History Section. All the material in this Journal is copyrighted. Copyright, 1986, Indiana Historical Society. Cover: After the horrors at Valley Forge one of Gen. George Washington's preoccupations was providing the army with suitable clothing. Both utility and pride in appearance were important considerations when on New Year's day of 1778 he ordered his colonels to instruct the tailors in their regiments to begin produc ing standardized dress for the troops. The motivations of one such tailor/ soldier are the subject of this month's lead article by Thomas M. Barker. This picture comes from So/diPrs ofthP A rnnican RPvolution: A Sknchbook, published by the Department of the Army's Center for Military History l ' FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK This issue, Volume II, No. I, has been produced with some difficulty. There still is no replacement for the editorial assistant and catching up on classes since the editor's return from Australia has proved more time consuming than expected . Even so, the editor hopes that readers will find the present issue interesting. The article on the revolutionary soldier from Massachusetts should be seen in the light of previous articles published on Revolutiona ry War events. This time the focus is on a man in the ra nks, perhaps the most important element in any army and representing the men who after the war moved west to settle, among others, the Hoosier State. The article on the Flying Tigers, presented by one of our most productive members, Arville Funk, delineates one episode of World War I I, while the article by our former editoral assistant, Kevin Reid, tells of the initial combat experience by a federalized National Guard Division committed to combat in North Africa. This mix of articles shows that the JOURNAL is open to contributions on many topics and that it welcomes, indeed is in need of, submissions by the membership. We welcome articles of moderate length; all manuscripts should be double-spaced; and citations should follow the format previously used in the JOURNAL. Ordinarily the text should not exceed twenty-five to thirty pages, though shorter and longer submissions will also be considered. In addition, the JOURNAL will also consider journals, letters, and other memorabilia relating to the military history of Indiana and the surrounding region, keeping in mind that military history does not merely include the activities of the armed forces, but also that of the surrounding civilian community. ' The editor hopes to receive suitable submissions and will do his best to keep the JOURNAL going in this difficult period. GER 3 THE CONTINENTAL SOLDIER MOTIVATED: A MASSACHUSETTS TAILOR DUR ING AND AFTER THE REVOLUTION! by Thomas M. Barker* Although the va rious regions of Colonial North America differed from one another in several important ways, there has never been much doubt that the common soldier of the Revolution, no matter where he wa s enrolled, came from the broad,lower strata of society. As in contemporary European armies, it was the hoi polloi who constituted the ra nk and file and bore the brunt of battle. Social superiors, whether aristocrats, gentry, well-to-do fa rmers, or solid burghers, were seldom drafted, impressed, or artfully recruited but served - if at all voluntarily and as officers. Consequently, in both the Old and New Worlds, there is relatively little testimony concerning the military experiences of simple folk. The situation is notably better, however, when the eighteenth-century "grunt" happened to hail from parts where a premium was put on literacy, but, even when such information can be found, it tends to be rudimentary in perception and conceptualization, however welcome and useful to the scholar.2 This lack of documentation is a pity, for one of the enduring tasks of American his toriography has been to understand why the rebels were able to defeat their better financed and prepared British adversaries, the professionally competent German hirelings, and the other auxiliaries who altogether greatly outnumbered and outgunned them. Certainly, French assistance and European drillmasters were crucial; but was there not, perchance, something special about the patriot forces' morale? Were there not bonds of some kind that enable them to hold steady under frightful conditions? Fortunately, students of the period have lately been directing increased attention to the inner workings of the militia and the Continental line regi ments that it spawned .1 Because the witnesses from the past are not as numerous or as articulate as one would like them to be, it might be possible for scholars to exploit the current, widespread public enthusiasm for family history, at least to the extent that forebears were participants in America's wars. In this kind of microcosmic effort, reconstituting the life of "everyman" from terse official data and d ra wi'ng upon collective family memory- "legend" in common parlance - are perforce the prime methodological tools. In a few instances, at any rate,use can also be made of surviving physical evidence in the form of heirlooms or even of old houses and farms. A final, rather obvious technique is to infer facts from what is otherwise well-established about the times and places in question. Anybody, rega rdless of descent, who sets out to probe his own ancestry, benefits from a special, uncommonly strong variety of motivation. Two other conditions apply to persons of Yankee origin. One - surely an advantage enjoyed not only by genealogical enthusiasts of a particular ethnic stripe but by all researchers of New England history- relates to documenta ry sources which are both more accessible geographically and less likely to have been affected by historical calamities. The region's settlement history is relatively pacific, and materials ha ve survived Ia rgely intact. The other plus is a vestigial,fa mily a ware ness of the ea rly Yankee frame of mind, an outlook reflecting the Old Testamentarian, Church-centered, possibly even theocratic social milieu of Colonial times. Of course, Yankee families have no monopoly on communal memory: it is the form that is peculiar. In all events, the story of Private Samuel Barker (1761-1831), an impecunious apprentice in his youth and a comfortably situated paradigm of Congregational piety in old age, may serve as an example of these circumstances. Among forty odd, mainly unrelated Barker patrilines dating from the initial English settle ment of the Atlantic seaboard is one which derives from a certain James (d. 1678), a Puritan tailor born in a now inextant hamlet in Low Suffolk. Led by a well-known Massachusetts •nwmas M. BarkPr is a profpssor of history at thP StatP Univnsity of NPw York at Albany. 4 .. MASSACHUSETTS TAI LOR 5 pioneer, the Reverend Ezekiel Rogers, and in the company of nineteen other fa milies, James, his wife, son, and brother landed in Salem in December of 1638. Come spring and joined by forty others, the pilgrim band trekked some 25 miles northward and founded the village of Rowley in the heart of Essex County. By his death James had achieved the status of a solid yeoman and respected community elder. However, records of the prolific quickly ramifying fa mily - sept is a better term - imply a narrowing of chances for further social mobility, especially when one takes into account the finite character of local agrarian resources.4 The bare bones impression of the genealogical chart is not deceptive. Rowley's early socioeconomic history has recently been the object of detailed investigation, and there can be little doubt that, by 1730 at the latest, the town offered only limited opportunity to grown sons and grandsons, particularly younger issue.s Moreover, the Barkers' straitened circumstances are directly documentable.