. The first American Civil War, first period 1775-1778, with chapters on the continental or revolutionary army and on the forces of the crown . res, both on active service in the Americancause and as a prisoner in the hands of the British,is well known, speaks of this service as terribledrudgery. He imputes the slackness of the people toindifference to the cause. Americans, he says, think the year 1776 to have beenone season of almost universal patriotic enthusiasm. This opinion he holds to be erroneous. The . . opposition to the claims of Britain originated with thebetter sort; it was truly a
. The first American Civil War, first period 1775-1778, with chapters on the continental or revolutionary army and on the forces of the crown . res, both on active service in the Americancause and as a prisoner in the hands of the British,is well known, speaks of this service as terribledrudgery. He imputes the slackness of the people toindifference to the cause. Americans, he says, think the year 1776 to have beenone season of almost universal patriotic enthusiasm. This opinion he holds to be erroneous. The . . opposition to the claims of Britain originated with thebetter sort; it was truly aristocratic in its commencement, andas the oppression to be apprehended has not been felt, nogrounds existed for general enthusiasm. Recruiting in consequence was slow and discourag-ing; none of the companies in which Graydon servedwere complete. His own was short by more than halfits regulation number. Graydons commission is dated6th January 1776, a date at which the war was alreadysix months old, with Boston beleagured, and Washingtoncalling out for more and better men. Graydon spentmany weeks in getting together this handful of IX THE CONTINENTAL ARMY 29 who were for the most part countryfolk, hands from thesmithy and the plough. In order to win recruits heappears to have used all the cajolery that a recruitingsergeant in the eighteenth century had to frequented taverns, drank heavily, occasionallyknocked a man down in the course of brawls andpot-house squabbles, and was engaged in much work hefound intensely distasteful. This way of collectingrecruits may have contributed towards the contemptentertained by the rank and file for some of their from captivity on parole in July 1777,Graydon, as he came home to Philadelphia, noticed atotal absence of military parade or martial vigour in theJerseys and Pennsylvania. Washington, he says, waswith the little remnant of his army at Morristown, leftto scuffle for liberty like another Cato at
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectunitedstateshistoryr
