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A well-disciplined army was vital to win American independence, but policing soldiers during the Revolution presented challenges. George Washington’s Enforcers: Policing the Continental Army examines how justice was left to the overlapping duties of special army personnel and how an improvised police force imposed rules and regulations on the common soldier. Historian Harry M. Ward describes these methods of police enforcement, emphasizing the brutality experienced by the enlisted men who were punished severely for even light transgressions. This volume explores the influences that shaped army practice and the quality of the soldiery, the enforcement of military justice, the use of guards as military police, and the application of punishment.
Washington’s army, which adopted the organization and justice code of the British army, labored under the direction of ill-trained and arrogant officers. Ward relates how the enlisted men, who had a propensity for troublemaking and desertion, not only were victims of the double standard that existed between officers and regular troops but also lacked legal protection in the army. The enforcement of military justice afforded the accused with little due process support.
Ward discusses the duties of the various personnel responsible for training and enforcing the standards of behavior, including duty officers, adjutants, brigade majors, inspectors, and sergeant majors. He includes the roles of life guards, camp guards, quarter guards, picket men, and safe guards, whose responsibilities ranged from escorting the commander in chief, intercepting spies and stragglers, and protecting farmers from marauding soldiers to searching for deserters, rounding up unauthorized personnel, and looking for delinquents in local towns and taverns.
George Washington’s Enforcers, which includes sixteen illustrations, also addresses the executions of the period, as both ritual and spectacle, and the deterrent value of capital punishment. Ward explains how Washington himself mixed clemency with severity and examines how army policies tested the mettle of this chief disciplinarian, who operated by the dictates of military necessity as perceived at the time.
- Sales Rank: #1840573 in Books
- Published on: 2006-03-24
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x 1.00" w x 6.00" l,
- Binding: Hardcover
- 296 pages
Review
“George Washington’s Enforcers comprehensively treats a subject that has been largely omitted from the literature on the War of Independence. Harry M. Ward illustrates how Washington’s efforts, with the backing of Congress, created an infrastructure that kept men from deserting in considerable numbers and made them follow prescribed forms of obedience. Few, if any, historians know the literature of the Revolution as well as Ward.”—R. Don Higginbotham, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“Harry Ward has labored for over four decades to expand our understanding of how armed forces were used in the Revolutionary era. George Washington’s Enforcers offers new perspectives on how military discipline was established and maintained in the Continental Army, an achievement that was a key element in turning American soldiers into an effective army. Ward provides a thorough account and examines the problems and personalities with insight and sympathy.” —Harold E. Selesky, author of War and Society in Colonial Connecticut and Demographic Survey of the Continental Army at Valley Forge
Harry Ward is an esteemed historian of the Revolutionary War. He has written exceptionally good biographies of four Continental army generals, a book on the banditti in the no-man's-land between the rival armies, and a general history of the American Revolution. Now Ward, a professor emeritus at the University of Richmond, has turned his attention to a neglected subject. Though he focuses on how the American army was policed in the Revolutionary War, in reality; George Washington's Enforcers is about far more than policing the Continental army. It offers valuable insights into the lives of those soldiered.
In the fall of 1777, just before the army marched into Valley Forge, the Continental Congress sent a committee to meet with General Washington in Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania. Congress had many things on its mind, but it was especially interested in improving discipline within the army. Allegations were flying inside and outside of Congress that autumn that Washington's army behaved like a mob. In contrast, some also alleged, the army in the Northern Department, commanded by General Horatio Gates, was the very model of what an army should be. Indeed, Gates's army had just defeated and captured an entire British army at Saratoga, while Washington had unsuccessfully defended Philadelphia against another British army. Congress put Washington on notice to make changes in his
army. Washington got the message, and the army that emerged from Valley Forge six months later was strikingly different.
Keeping discipline in the army was essential for numerous reasons, including protecting health and safeguarding nearby civilians. It was crucial as well that the soldiers learn to follow orders, so that in the heat of battle they would do as they were told. Ward explains the military justice system in detail, showing how it grew more draconian as the war progressed. Under the initial Articles of War there were only two capital crimes, but fourteen others had been added by the end of 1776. Ward estimates that up to one hundred Continental soldiers were sent to the gallows or before firing squads. At the outset of the war, the military code permitted courts-martial to order up to thirty-nine lashes for certain acts; after one year, punishments of one hundred lashes were authorized, and for a wider range of infractions. Corporal punishment occurred almost daily in the Continental army and included many gruesome practices that today would be seen as cruel and unusual.
Ward chronicles the various types of guard duty that existed, including protecting officers, securing the camp, and patrolling detached areas to (John Ferling West Virginia History 20081002)
In 16 largely stand-alone chapters, Ward (emer., Univ. of Richmond) argues that while the often-brutal punishments (ranging from hundreds of lashes to executions) inflicted under Washington proved inadequate as a deterrent, his efforts nonetheless fostered professionalism among the Continental Army's ranks. Further, Ward argues, the disciplining and controlling of the army reflected the norms of early American society itself, in that the enlisted/lower ranks invariably received higher rates of conviction and severer punishments for transgressions than the genteel officers, and they were generally treated similarly to the enslaved Americans of the era. Perhaps the greatest contribution of the work is its clear, concise, detailed description of the various--and occasionally overlapping layers of enforcement that Washington (ironically) adopted and adapted, primarily from the British Army. Washington emerges as a pragmatic disciplinarian who, while trying to fight a war, had his hands full in trying to professionalize and retain the oft transient and easily distracted troops. Rooted in primary sources and comprehensive in nature, Ward's work will certainly be a boon to anyone interested in the intricacies of the Continental Army--although the absence of the Newburgh Conspiracy in such a work is curious.
Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic levels/libraries.
(M.D. Bergmann CHOICE 20081002)
When he asked Congress for a "respectable army," George Washington had in mind an army on the European professional model. That also meant an army with the behavior norms of an Old World military, and many careful studies have addressed aspects of soldierly conduct and military justice inherent in Washington's efforts to discipline his Continentals. But scholarship has said relatively little about the men who actually enforced discipline in Washington's army-that is, about the soldiers directly concerned with the policing and punishment of their comrades in arms. In George Washington's Enforcers: Policing the Continental Army, Harry M. Ward has offered the first comprehensive treatment of the troops who were, in effect, the republic's first military police.
Responsibilities for army policing fell to no single military command. Rather, a broad assortment of duty officers, camp guards, quarter guards, pickets, adjutants, brigade majors, provost marshals, guards in the retinues of senior officers (including Washington's Life Guards), and even musicians, who often doubled as floggers, all shared aspects of police work. Jurisdictions often overlapped, and so many troops were involved that there was plenty of grousing over just who was supposed to be doing what. But Ward does an admirable job of sorting out the duties of those engaged in military policing and of pointing out the scope of the effort. At any given time the Continentals probably devoted a quarter of their strength to providing security against the enemy, policing camp order and behavior, catching spies and stragglers, preventing desertions, meting out discipline, dealing with truculent soldiers, and similar tasks. Policing the army was no mean feat.
By 1778 problems of army discipline were such that Congress authorized a mounted Maréchaussée Corps of some sixty men, tasked specifically with military police duties. Washington always hoped for the best from them, but he never got it. Indeed, the Maréchaussée were unpopular. The often barbaric army punishments fell almost exclusively on the enlisted ranks (a point Ward emphasizes), and they resented anyone directly connected with the enforcement of military justice. Moreover, Maréchaussée duties sometimes overlapped those of Washington's Life Guards, and bad blood arose between the units. In the end, as Ward correctly observes, the Maréchaussée ended up as little more than an "unusual experiment," and military policing never successfully became a discrete command during the Revolution (p. 153).
Ward's study is grounded in impeccable scholarship and a mastery of the secondary literature. He also has mined the primary sources thoroughly, digging out details of day-to-day camp policing from the papers of officers tasked with the duty and, in many cases, from the recorded observations of soldiers who witnessed punishments given to comrades. It can make for grim reading.
See page 192, for instance, for troops' reaction to the hanging of one of their own: they stoned the executioner and officers who tried to restore order. Ward has written a fine book, and while one hesitates to label any history definitive, George Washington's Enforcers certainly will stand for some time as the final word on this important but often overlooked subject.
(Mark Edward Lender The Journal of Southern History 20081002)
Harry M. Ward examines military justice in the Continental army and the troops who enforced it. He is particularly interested in the experiences of enlisted men. Ward finds that the Continental army was similar to eighteenth-century European armies in its emphasis on strict discipline and use of brutal punishments. However, the revolutionaries experimented with various means of policing the army. Ward shows that most troops performing police functions temporarily rotated to this duty from other units. As a result, the revolutionaries did not create significant professional military police forces. Ward also argues that punishment in the American army was slightly more humane than in the British military system" (p. xi).
The book begins with several contextual chapters. Ward surveys the late colonial experience with military discipline. He then briefly profiles the social composition of Continental troops and offers an overview of revolutionary military justice policies. The heart of the analysis unfolds as Ward explains the development of police roles for George Washington's Life Guard, the Maréchaussée Corps (a mounted military police force), camp guards, fifers, drummers, the provost marshal, and others. Additional chapters focus on soldiers' experience of the enforcement of military discipline during marches, corporal punishment, and executions. Ward notes throughout how bodily punishment for infractions was meted out to enlisted men and how officers largely presided over it.
This is a very valuable and comprehensive history of police roles within the Continental army. It will be a useful reference tool for early American and military historians. Ward casts new light on courts-martial records. While recent historians have previously addressed the experience of military justice during the Revolution, this work explicates the development of policies governing discipline and specifies who executed them. Additionally, the book offers several important comparisons. It shows the similarities of harsh discipline in the Continental and British armies. Ward notes that such brutalities were based on history and on prevailing norms that endorsed treating soldiers as the dregs of society. The author demonstrates that the more humane treatment American forces enjoyed was the result of the political realities of the revolutionary situation: short-term enlistments and traditional aversion to the full brutality of the British system.
Ward also probes the disparity between the punishments of officers and soldiers. A fuller analysis of how officers were disciplined would have enhanced this contrast. Another connection that Ward might have developed more completely is the relationship between military justice and Anglo-American criminal law. Finally, the book's evidence suggests some intriguing racial issues entwined with policing the army. Col. Henry Emanuel Lutterloh of the Marechaussee Corps proposed "4 Negroes to performe the Executions, as Whitemen would not do as well" (p. 142). Ward elsewhere explains that in 1780, several 'refugee negroes' were impressed into the role of hangman" (p. 191). It would be worthwhile to explore the possible relationship between Lutterloh's presumptions and the subsequent use of African American executioners. Nonetheless, Ward has written a deeply researched, informative, and insightful account of policing the revolutionary army.
(Gregory T. Knouff The Journal of American History 20061201)
About the Author
Harry M. Ward, William Binford Vest Professor of History, Emeritus, at the University of Richmond, is the author of fifteen books, including Major General Adam Stephen and the Cause of American Liberty, Between the Lines: Banditti of the American Revolution, and The American Revolution: Nationhood Achieved, 1763–1788.
Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Absolutely a Wonderful Work -- Very Scholarly and Breaks Much New Ground
By David M. Dougherty
Professor Ward should be congratulated for this work. It is exceedingly scholarly and addresses an almost unknown and academically overlooked element in Revolutionary War history. History is never pretty regardless of how journalists and propagandists attempt to dress it up for their own purposes. The author makes extensive use of primary sources such as Elijah Fisher's regretably short journal insofar as it deals with his time in the Commander-in-Chief's Guard, and the only criticism I can make is that sometimes Professor Wards fills in details from secondary sources such as Carlos Godfrey's "The Commander-in-Chief's Guard" written in 1904. Although Godfrey is normally used by historians as the definitive work on the Guard, it is hardly a respectable scholarly presentation. The definitive work on the Guard has not been written.
In order to defeat the world's finest army, Washington was obliged to build a disciplined force capable of meeting the British and Hessians head to head. This could not be accomplished by short-serving militia (in spite of Jefferson's beliefs to the contrary), although there were instances where the militia acquitted itself honorably (Bunker Hill, Bennington, King's Mountain.) However, in each of these cases, there were specific conditions that contributed to the militia's performance that were relatively unique. Militia troops generally required cover for their legs to remain, their leadership needed to be unusually effective, and they were on a par with loyalist troops raised by the British.
Washington therefore adopted British-style discipline and regimens of punishment -- after all that was what he knew. This enforcement of discipline was draconian, highly undemocratic, but effective. The modern reader must put himself into the situation where, as an ill-trained soldier who has only been in the army for a few weeks or months, he is standing exposed in a line facing another line of British troops with glistening bayonets, acting almost as a machine, advancing and firing volleys as if unaffected by anything he and his fellow colonials are doing. To make things worse, the British are only one hundred (or closer) to two hundred feet away. Simply put, it takes nerves of steel (or fear of punishment) to remain in place.
Yes, Washington remained aloof from the enlisted soldiers in his command, but he also maintained a certain reserve towards the vast majority of his officers. He adopted an imperial demeanor in the presence of his army because he believed such behavior was conducive to building morale. And he was correct. He was also under no illusions as to what was needed with respect to discipline. The Royal Navy was famous for harsh treatment of its seamen, and it was clearly the finest and most effective navy in the world. Frederick the Great was equally harsh and effective, and that was the secret to success in 18th century warfare.
It has been noted by a number of authors, including this one, that Washington held a rather low opinion of his army's enlisted men. That came out of his patrician background, but was strengthened by observing his troops' behavior under the very trying circumstances. The troops were normally underfed, often without shoes, very poorly clothed, and were utterly deviod of creature comforts that might have induced them to be more civilized. They went months and years without pay, and it is remarkable that the army was able to maintain a core of dedicated troops at all. As Professor Ferling has remarked, it was "almost a miracle."
This work covers how Washington was able to keep the army together, or at least concentrates on the punishment and policing efforts to maintain an effective force in the field. Washington is not shown to be Miss Goody Two-Shoes, but neither is he the ogre the contemporary far-left loves to paint. The author gives an unbiased account, showing the unpleasant aspects of Washington's job and the necessity of harsh discipline in the Continental Army.
Although Americans would like to think of Washington's Army being made up of dedicated soldiers, eager to endure every hardship and face death to win (or maintain) their freedom, the reality was much different. The Army was very poorly supported by Congress (gee, nothing unusual there), and also by the general citizenry. It must be remembered that approximately two-thirds of the population were either Loyalists or essentially neutral which in practice made them enemies. Approximately half of the Continental Army was Scotch-Irish, although they made up less than twenty percent of the population. For much of the civilian population, two foreign armies were waging war to their great discomfort.
Time and time again the Continental Army was threatened with dissolution over the eight years of its existence (the modern reader should know all about civilian support for long wars), and Washington was called upon to perform miracles to maintain an effective force. Historians have been repeatedly astonished that the Patriots were eventually successful. This is a case of "the more one knows about something, the worse it looks." The Patriots suffered approximately 50,000 deaths from all causes, including battle deaths, sickness and deaths in captivity or soon after release. This represents about one in seven males who were patriots and of military age. Today, that would represent a loss of fourteen million American men -- a casuality rate unacceptable to modern sensibilities. For those who want to believe the official battle deaths as less than 6,000, that only counts those killed in action in official reports, and is the tip of the iceberg.
Professor Ward has done a magnificant job in presenting an unpleasant subject. Perhaps he will write a similar book on conscription in the Revolutionary War -- an untouched area begging for a PhD dissertation -- or the definitive work on the Commander-in-Chief's Guard. I certainly hope so.
I highly recommend this book to all historians and readers interested in the Revolutionary War and/or the Founding Fathers.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Fascinating tale of a history not often told.
By Ralph Adam Fine
George Washington was as tough a revolutionary leader as the planet has seen in any country. That he was the leader of *our* revolution has soft-soaped the brutal conditions and punishments in his army. The victors write the history, as they say, and if the British had won he would be viewed as a tyrant who failed. This is a fascinating book, and, along with Ron Chernow's superb *Alexander Hamilton*, shows that the feet of the politicians of yesteryear are made of the same loam as are the feet of our current crop.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
A serious look at a little known element of American history
By Boyce Rensberger
I was looking for anything that historians had found about the military police during the American revolution. This book gave a good rundown of the Marechauseee, a key military unit that enforced discipline on the untrained, rag-tag army of micreants and low-lifes who constituted Washington's army.
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