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Edition History: Harlan Davidson, Inc (2e, 2006, 1e, 1982) Harlan Davidson was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in May 2012 Registered Office John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148‐5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley‐blackwell. The right of James Kirby Martin and Mark Edward Lender to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. 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Set in 10/13pt Meridien by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India 1 2015 For Frederick William Martin Contents List of Illustrations ix Preface x 1 Of Lexington and Concord, and the Myths of the War, 1763–1775 1 Lexington and Concord 1 Of Standing Armies (Power) and Militia (Liberty) 5 Ideological Transmission 9 The Provincial Militia Tradition 14 The Tyranny of Standing Armies 19 Notes 27 2 The Republican War, 1775–1776 29 A Republican Order as the Goal 29 Regulars Versus Republicans: The British at Bay 33 The Adoption of a Continental Army 39 The British Military Counterthrust 47 The New York Campaign 52 Success and Failure 61 Notes 64 3 Toward an American Standing Army, 1776–1777 66 The Nature of the Continental Army 66 A New Model Rebel Army 70 vii Contents William Howe’s Campaign of 1777 78 The Saratoga Campaign 83 The American Search for Manpower 87 The Old Myth and the New Soldiery 97 Notes 99 4 On and Off the Road of Despair, 1777–1779 102 Valley Forge 102 Mounting Anger in the Officer Corps 106 Tables Turned: New Life for the Cause 113 The British Dispersal of 1778 120 Growing Internal Division: Army and Society 127 Notes 136 5 Moral Defeat and Military Turnabout, 1779–1781 139 Dispersed Warfare 139 Patriot Naval Exploits 146 Financial Morass on the Home Front 151 The War in the Southern States 157 Treason, Pensions, and Mutinies 164 Sudden Turnabout: The Road to Yorktown 171 Notes 176 6 Of War, National Legitimacy, and the Republican Order, 1781–1789 179 The Yorktown Campaign 179 Formulating a Peace Settlement 187 The Newburgh Conspiracy 194 Transition to a Postwar World 202 Myth and Tradition: A Political/Military Settlement 210 Notes 217 A Note on Revolutionary War History and Historiography 219 Index 232 viii List of Illustrations Figure 2.1 Map of the Northern Campaigns 35 Figure 2.2 George Washington by James Peale, after Charles Willson Peale, c.1787–1790 40 Figure 2.3 Charles, Lord Cornwallis, British general 57 Figure 3.1 Horatio Gates by James Peale, c.1782 88 Figure 3.2 Molly Pitcher firing her fallen husband’s cannon at the Battle of Monmouth 96 Figure 5.1 Map of Clark’s Western Campaigns, 1778–1779 142 Figure 5.2 Thayendanegea or Chief Joseph Brant 144 Figure 5.3 Action between the Serapis and Bonhomme Richard, 1779 151 Figure 5.4 Map of the Southern Campaigns 160 Figure 5.5 Benedict Arnold 165 Figure 5.6 Nathanael Greene, by Charles Willson Peale, from life, 1783, oil on canvas 173 Figure 6.1 Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau, by Charles Willson Peale, from life, c. 1782 184 ix Preface When we initially put pen to paper in preparing the first edition of “A Respectable Army,” the proponents of the “new” military his- tory were just gaining full momentum. Their objective was to reach beyond the traditional focus of military studies—the flow of guns, combat, and tactics that influenced the immediate out- come of battles and martial conflicts, often with little reference to broader historical contexts. The new military historians wanted to relate these time‐honored considerations to the larger sweep of historical development and change. Virtually every subject, among them soldiers and societies, ideological constructions about standing forces, civil‐military relations, and warfare and societal memories, started to come under careful scrutiny in the search for connections between martial issues and the critical matter of explaining the ever‐changing contours of human history. The late Walter Millis was an early proponent of the new mil- itary history. In his highly influential overview volume, Arms and Men: A Study in American Military History, he discussed how the experience and impact of war had lasting reverberations in molding the core ideals and values of the United States.