Common Soldiers' Experiences, Localism, and Army Reform In
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Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2021 “The Entire Army Says Hello”: Common Soldiers’ Experiences, Localism, and Army Reform in Britain and Prussia, 1739-1789 Alexander S. Burns West Virginia University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd Part of the European History Commons, History of Religion Commons, Military History Commons, and the Social History Commons Recommended Citation Burns, Alexander S., "“The Entire Army Says Hello”: Common Soldiers’ Experiences, Localism, and Army Reform in Britain and Prussia, 1739-1789" (2021). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 8080. https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/8080 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by the The Research Repository @ WVU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you must obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in WVU Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports collection by an authorized administrator of The Research Repository @ WVU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “The Entire Army Says Hello”: Common Soldiers’ Experiences, Localism, and Army Reform in Britain and Prussia, 1739-1789 Alexander S. Burns A Dissertation submitted to the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in History Katherine B. Aaslestad, Ph.D., Chair Matthew Vester, Ph.D., Co-Chair Tyler Boulware, Ph.D. Joseph M. Hodge, Ph.D. Max Flomen, Ph.D. Michael V. Leggiere, Ph.D. Department of History Morgantown, West Virginia 2021 Keywords: Britain; Prussia; Army; Soldiers; Common; Letters; Eighteenth Century; Copyright 2021 Alexander Samuel Burns ABSTRACT The Entire Army Says Hello”: Common Soldiers’ Experiences, Localism, and Army Reform in Britain and Prussia, 1739-1789 Alexander S. Burns This dissertation fundamentally questions the state of the field regarding militaries, state building, and narratives of modernity in the Kingdoms of Britain and Prussia. An examination of military stereotyping, common soldiers’ correspondence, religion, localism, and army reform all suggests that the British and Prussian militaries were mutually-intelligible and similar, not radically different. This similarity has broad implications for the modern history of these two European states. Britain was not on a straight road to whiggish parliamentary progress, and Prussia was not on a straight road to militarism and authoritarian rule. Rather, in second half of the eighteenth century, both of these military-fiscal states utilized their religious rural subjects, drawn from their village communities, as the basis of their military strength. Forming part of a growing scholarly revolution regarding eighteenth-century common soldiers, this dissertation relies on soldiers’ letters drawn from archives across the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Atlantic World. “The Entire Army Says Hello” demonstrates that soldiers in Britain and Prussia experienced broad similarities in their military service, and those similarities offer a new framework for the national history of these two states. Table of Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................v Introduction ....................................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1 ..................................................................................................................................43 Chapter 2 ......................................................................................................................................75 Chapter 3 ....................................................................................................................................108 Chapter 4 ....................................................................................................................................141 Chapter 5 ....................................................................................................................................172 Chapter 6 ....................................................................................................................................202 Chapter 7 ....................................................................................................................................236 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................268 Bibliography ...............................................................................................................................276 iii For Noelle and Katherine iv Acknowledgements Like a Fahnenjunker from a poor Pomeranian family who had recently arrived in Berlin, the doctoral student writing a dissertation naturally incurs a great many debts. Over the past six years, I have benefitted from the knowledge, kindness, wisdom, and charity of more individuals than I can count. My life would not be the same without their support, and certainly this dissertation would never have been completed. My parents, Leslee and Patrick Burns, sparked my interest in history. My mother has a great talent for reading aloud, and G.A. Henty’s nineteenth-century historical fiction was the one of the roots of my interest in the past. My parents provided the bedrock for my interest in history to grow, and I will always be grateful for this gift. All of my grandparents, particularly George Hull Haden and Shirlee Kirk Haden, fostered my love of the past in conversations about their lives during the turmoil of the twentieth century. My professional training in history began at Indiana Wesleyan University, studying with Professors Mark A. Smith, David K. Burden, and David Bartley. They modeled the excellence in undergraduate education, and my syllabi and teaching style are heavily in their debt. Drs. Daniel Ingram, Sergei Zhuk and Nicole Etcheson continued the work of developing me as a scholar during my education at Ball State University between 2012 and 2014. My work was further sharpened in the classrooms of Drs. Tyler Boulware, Brian Luskey, Joseph Hodge, and James Siekmeier at West Virginia University, where I began my doctoral studies in 2015. The process of gaining an education begins with classroom instruction, and I have been fortunate enough to sit in many classrooms with my advisor, Dr. Katherine Aaslestad. Her instruction, patience, endurance, and above all, her kindness, have made my educational journey at West Virginia University a truly memorable one. She and her wonderful husband John Lambertson opened their home for memorable graduate student dinners of veal and pasta, attended by all of her students. Those evenings, in the South Park neighborhood of Morgantown, remain some of my fondest memories of graduate life. Katherine, considering the rarity of scholars studying German Central Europe before the twentieth century in the United States, has truly been the solid foundation upon which this dissertation was built. I will be forever grateful for her support, and the gift of her time in difficult circumstances. She has been the best Doktormutter a Doktorand could hope for. I sincerely appreciate the vast assistance given to me by the archivists archival staff across Europe and North America. Archivists helped me greately at the Society of the Cincinnati Library, National Archives of the United States, Library and Archives of Canada, British National Archives, Templer Study Centre, Kent Local History Centre, Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Hessian State Archives in Wiesbaden, Darmstadt, and Marburg, and the Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv. I received exemplary service at all of these fine institutions. Among the many archivists I have encountered in my travels, three stand out. At the Society of the Cincinnati Library, Director Ellen Clark has been a repository of knowledge v regarding eighteenth-century warfare, and a constant help to my work since I was completing my MA degree in 2013. At the National Army Museum in Chelsea, Robert Fleming assisted my work for two years running, and kept me well supplied with documents in the most pleasant archival environment imaginable. Finally, Herr Michael Scholz at the Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt was extremely helpful, and even kindly retrieved document outside of the normal daily pull times: truly an extraordinary gesture. Numerous historians kindly donated their time to read this dissertation, and their advice has considerably improved the final result. Sascha and Katrin Möbius gave extensive feedback on almost every aspect of my work, from explaining obscure nuances in Early Modern German, to assisting with my organizational knowledge of the Prussian Army. Dr. Möbius also kindly agreed to serve as my outside reader before scheduling conflicts made that impossible. Dr. Michael Leggiere, of the University of North Texas, brought his keen powers of writing and as well as the logical mind of a military historian, to bear on