Benjamin Hinman Quotes
Although the New York contingent abounded with officers, my curiosity has not yet been gratified by the sight of one private.
Socioeconomic class was a major factor in the Continental Army just as it was in the British Army. New York, unlike New England, did not have the clear-cut majority in favor of independence. Most of the working class at this stage had no opinion on independence as they did not need to and were not of the social class that had been discussing and arguing about the relationship with England. The upper class had been discussing the issue for some time and were polarized into Patriot and Loyalist sympathies. When the Patriots of New York voted to raise its first Regiment, the first people to volunteer were the men of the upper class who had been debating the question for some time. Because of their social class, they had to be officers. The lower classes got into the intellectual and political debate later, and they too were divided. The Patriots among them then volunteered to provide the privates and other enlisted men to the NY regiment. But the early contingents of New Yorkers were very top heavy with officers. While not as rigid as the Continental Army, the modern American Armed Services are still affected by this tradition. While there are many exceptions, there is still a strong correlation between military rank and socioeconomic family status.
Benjamin Hinman, 1719 –1810, Colonel of the Continental Army, Commander of Patriot Troops at Fort Ticonderoga, Elected Member of the Connecticut Colonial Legislature, Surveyor of Vermont Statement when a contingent of New York soldiers arrived at Fort Ticonderoga
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See {629263} for more on the “Gentleman” Southern officers.
Rush ran the hospitals for the Revolutionary Army and talked to many officers and enlisted men, and also observed much of the British military practices. These suggestions were discussed but never passed as regulations. They are fascinating insights into the problems of the general officers of the time who were generally selected for their socioeconomic status rather than other qualifications. Note the drunkenness limitation for a commanding general was proposed to be limited to only 1 allowed bout of drunkenness every 24 hours. It was, he thought, totally unrealistic to require generals to be always sober when on duty. With the mediocre quality of senior officers, Washington had to depend on foreigners like Lafayette, Von Steuben and others. And Generals who were leading attacks out in front of their men like Benedict Arnold immediately became heroes and one of the reasons he ended up as a traitor was that he thought that he was badly treated relative to the “society” Generals who would not accept him and denigrated his exploits when they themselves had never been close to a battle front.
Washington, though a military officer at the time, was very concerned with protecting the rights of citizens from abuse by the military for he had seen much of the abuse. The third amendment for example was later written to protect people from the military. The Constitution also requires that Congress make such rules for the military. Note that Washington, our first senior military officer at the time, wanted Congress to make detailed rules for the conduct of soldiers. In the 20th and 21st century, as the imperial presidency developed, there was a political view that only the military officers and the Commander in Chief should make the rules and regulations for the soldiers. However, there was no question but that the Founding Fathers saw this as a legislative branch function. Congress and Presidents have contested for this power every since.
This was an official publication of the U. S. Army. The First World War had very little affect on future military preparedness At that time conservatives in Congress were very isolationist and military preparedness was not a high priority or even a significant political issue. The Democrats then were more supportive of military spending than the Republicans. It took World War II, for which America was very unprepared, to produce a change in public and political opinion regarding military preparedness.
The French and English, with larger numbers and more experienced troops and officers, wanted the American units to come under the command or their officers and be integrated into the allied army. However Wilson established the tradition that American troops fighting abroad most always fight as an American Army under American Command. Although resented then and into the 21st century by America’s allies who are expected to fight under American command, it is a tradition that no American major politician has seriously challenged since then.
Note the egalitarian and democratic nature of the method of selection of military officers. This was typical of frontier thinking—the men who were putting their lives on the line should have a say in who their leaders would be. The Governor and the legislature could only select the top officers like the Adjutant General or the Major General. Congress had retained the power to appoint general officers but allowed them and the civilian secretaries of the armed services to select all other officers. The latter enabled wealthy people to be appointed officers without any necessary competence and many even in the Civil War in effect bought their appointments by paying for the uniforms or bringing weapons. While America became more democratic and egalitarian over its first two centuries, the appointment of military officers is the one area where it became less democratic and egalitarian. The election of officers so popular in many states was gradually and finally abolished.
Many modern Americans who look to the founding fathers for modern guidance regarding gun rights, foreign policy, and many other facets of government are shocked to learn that there was almost unanimous opposition to maintaining a standing army in times of peace. That there was very little concept of military preparedness.
Eggleston was an accomplished writer who had served in the Confederate army of the Civil War. 20 year after the war he wrote a series of articles for the prestigious Northern Atlantic Monthly trying to convey the war from the Southerner’s point of view.
Eggleston was an accomplished writer who had served in the Confederate army of the Civil War. 20 year after the war he wrote a series of articles for the prestigious Northern Atlantic Monthly trying to convey the war from the Southerner’s point of view.
Commenting on the hostilities between the Baltic states and the Russian government:
Monroe was then Secretary of State and the U. S. was at war.
In early America, there was great concern about a standing army—a military force that exists and is organized in peacetime. History showed the founding fathers that tyrants who siezed power almost always did so by getting control of the standing army. The logic was if there is no standing army, no one can control it and therefore no tyrant can control the country by force. At the time, however, with oceans protecting us, there was penty of time to mobilize a defensive army should any foreign power invade. However, with modern military technology, and the importantance of retaliation as a protective3 strategy, it is virtually impossible to not have a standing army and stoll be secure.
While most modern armies treat officers and enlisted men who desert equally or even favor the officers, the Visigoths made desertion by an officer the severest of crimes. A centurion was the officer in charge of 100 men. There were 10 decurians (leaders of 10) under him, They were the modern equivalent of the Sergeants—non-commissioned officers. Their penalty for desertion was only the paying of a heavy fine. It was the officers who had to set the example. This set of laws is the most formalized and sophisticated compendium of laws of the so-called “barbaric peoples” of Europe. The compilation was in many ways a documentation of the traditional laws of the Visigoths that had evolved over hundreds of years.
The Founding Fathers wanted to be sure that the American Culture would not be a military one. But with each American war, there was a little more of it as many men identified themselves not by their occupation or current organizational title but by their highest military title. Hawthorne and many other Americans were reluctant to see this occur. However, Hawthorne turned out to be right about the behavior of the Civil War officers long after the war had ended. In Kentucky, the governor was given the right to appoint anyone a Colonel in the state militia, and to this day Kentucky Colonels proliferate. The American military to boost the prestige of retiring officers developed the practice of promoting each officer to the next higher rank the day he retired. So Captains could be Majors, and Majors could thereafter be Colonels, and Colonels, Generals
