Thomas Jefferson Quotes
We could create a Virginia cavalry regiment specifically for the sons of planters, youths whose indolence or education, has unfitted them for foot-service.
Men were being recruited to volunteer for the new American Revolutionary army throughout the colonies. However, the sons of many Virginia planters were neither recruited, nor did most of them volunteer. The reality was that few of them had an education that might fit them for many of the military needs. However, they were not very fit to be foot-soldiers (infantry) as they were mostly, having lived on a slave plantation where they did not work and were truly indolent and would not have the discipline or endurance to march long distances. Jefferson came up with this idea: Create a special Cavalry unit. They could all serve together and would not be a bad example to other men, and they all could ride a horse as that was their primary mode of transportation. This is another of the examples negative effects on whites what Negro slavery wrought.
Thomas Jefferson Letter to Richard henry Lee June 5, 1778
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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.
Mechanics was a general term for people who made things, or fixed things. Ramsay was the first major historian of the American Revolution.
By 1863, Negro troops were being used to fill in gaps in the Union forces. Many union generals resisted having colored troops under their command. Thomas, however, welcomed them, and won several major battles where black soldiers were instrumental in victory.
While we think of the Founding Fathers as great and noble men, it is interesting to consider a contemporary view of the American leadership from another leading American who chose the British side in the conflict. The British and the Loyalists suspected most of the revolutionary leaders as men who were very ambitious for personal gain and economically unsuccessful compared to many others of the then American “establishment.”
In contrast to the American army, there was no conscription in Canada. Note the quaint Canadian euphemism, "invited."
There was no conscription during the War of 1812 and the State militias were notoriously unreliable.
Monroe was then Secretary of State and the U. S. was at war.
There is a , romantic American myth about the Militiamen in Colonial and Revolutionary America—the citizen soldiers who would leave their farms and rise to the military necessity of the day. However, not only were the militia very hard to muster to duty, but most actually didn’t own or have experience with firearms, and the prevailing opinion of knowledgeable military leaders from George Washington on down was that the militia were not very good soldiers. See {613015}, {613016}, {613022}, {613027}, {621987}, {621988}, {613030}, {613033}, & {613056}.
General Washington and his officers were constantly trying to get around the Southern bloc in the Continental Congress. South Carolina was willing because, perhaps more so than any other region of the country the South Carolina civilian population were suffering from the British military initiatives. See related quotes.
Just a month earlier Washington had issued a contradictory order. See {614221}. The Continental Congress, under pressure from the Southerners, compromised.
Washington quickly changed his mind when he realized that there were many Negroes fighting for his army and acquitting themselves very well. The pressure for troops and the English invitation to Negroes to help them and get their freedom, caused Washington to flip-flop on this point to the distress of most of his fellow Southerners. See {614220}.
He was not a very good agent in the sense of making accurate reports. At the time this was an unrealistically positive assessment, but it is likely that he was provided with “American propaganda”. France would only assist America if they thought that the Americans had a good chance, and the American diplomats’ propaganda efforts were successful in exaggerating the size of the army, the morale, the provisioning, and the pay.
He was commenting on some of the military disciplinary, logistical, intelligence, and tactical breakdowns that had occurred in the Afghanistan War.
See {629263} for more on the “Gentleman” Southern officers.
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.
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.
Thomas Jefferson was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He had previously served as the second vice president of the United States under John Adams between 1797 and 1801. The principal author of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson was a proponent of democracy, republicanism, and individual rights, motivating American colonists to break from the Kingdom of Great Britain and form a new nation; he produced formative documents and decisions at both the state and national levels.
