Benjamin Rush Quotes
There is the utmost order & contentment in their [the British] hospitals. The wounded whom we brought off from the field were not half so well treated as those whom we left in General Howe's hands. Our Officers and Soldiers spoke with gratitude and affection of their Surgeons. An orderly man was allotted to every ten of our wounded, and British Officers called every morning upon our officers to know whether their Surgeons did their duty.
This is an aspect of the American Revolution that is rarely described in American history books. 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.
Benjamin Rush, 1745-1813, Physician & member of the Continental Congress, Surgeon General of the Continental Army and Treasurer of the U.S. Mint, Letter to John Adams, 1777
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The Patent Office was one of the most imposing buildings in Civil War Washington. There was truly a society at war where every resource was put to us for the war effort. Walt Whitman, in addition to being a great poet, was a nurse.
General Howe was the Commander of British Troops in the American Revolution. The early American Army was neither professional, experienced, or well officered. Execution as a means of punishment was much more common than in the larger, professional British army. 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.
This letter drafted by Adams was sent by the Congress complaining about the Closing of Boston Harbor. The letter was right about the consequences except for the last; the rift between American and the mother country was not only healed but there is no European nation that has been closer to the United States over the years.
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.
The advances of battlefield medicine produced a very large increase in the number of wounded veterans and an unprecedented demand for nurses and other medical personnel. In the Iraq war over half a century later, the need exploded still further. But the need to “serve those who served” approach has not been tried.
The Centograph is a war memorial monument in London. On Remembrance Day, a British Patriotic Holiday, veterans march past the Centograph. The quotation is text uttered by one of her characters.
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.
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.
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. This is a fascinating quotation because it discusses a problem of the early American Military which has been a constant throughout history: Generals and Admirals using soldiers and sailors as personal servants and retinue. While there have been Generals like Horatio Gates, Omar Bradley and Dwight D, Eisenhower and others of every era who did not take advantage of their power to obtain this personal aggrandizement, many have and continue to use their position to obtain personal perks.
We are so accustomed to thinking about George Washington as a great military leader that it is surprising to see contemporary comparisons where Washington was found wanting or second. Actually Horatio Gates was a brilliant tactical general and a great leader of men—many think far better than Washington, but the genius of Washington was his strategic and political grasp of the situation. Essentially, with exceptions like the Battle of Trenton, Washington lost almost all the battles he fought as a tactical general. He realized early on that he did not have to win battles; he just had to prevent losing them so badly that he could not continue the fight. The insurgent wins as long as he can still fight. The British could not win unless they eliminated the ability of the revolutionists to fight. But Washington won the last battle at Yorktown, and that is the one that counted. 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.
the soldiers of King George The early American Revolutionary Army was not led by many competent seniors officers. Many of the general officers were such by virtue of socio-economic class rather than talent or merit. Rush ran the hospitals for the Revolutionary and talked to many officers and enlisted men, and also observed much of the British military practices.
1776 at the Battle of Bunker Hill This was the first formal battle of the American Revolution. The British officers perceived the American colonials as a rag-tag collection of men with no experience or skill at arms. Looking for glory they led from the front and if nothing else the Colonials were superb marksmen who picked the officers off easily. After that battle, British officers were more prudent and respectful of the revolutionaries.
This quotation shows that the dissent leading to the American Revolution did not emerge suddenly in 1776 after the Battle of Bunker Hill. Dissent, sedition and even violence was documented here in 1774. Salem at the time was the second largest port in the colony and the customs tax collectors—Loyalist Americans—were run out of Salem.
This militia shall be ready to march with only In the popular vernacular, they were called “Minute Men”. Within a few weeks, similar reorganizations took place in Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex Counties. In early October, the First Massachusetts Provincial Congress, meeting in Concord, adopted the Minute Man concept for the entire state.
Benjamin Rush was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence and a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, social reformer, humanitarian, and educator and the founder of Dickinson College. Rush attended the Continental Congress. His later self-description there was: "He aimed right." He served as Surgeon General of the Continental Army and became a professor of chemistry, medical theory, and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania.
