Belonging to the Army: Camp Followers and Community During the American Revolution [Paperback]

Belonging to the Army: Camp Followers and Community During the American Revolution by Holly A. Mayer


This book is valuable in that it helps to provide a fuller, more accurate picture of what the Continental Army and Colonial America was like.

When you read primary source documents you find casual allusions to others with the army but who do not wear the uniform. As the old axiom goes, "amateurs study tactics and experts study logistics so goes much of the story of this book. The Continental Army was very much a product of its own time. As such many of the logistical and what we now call service and support work was done not by soldiers but by contractors and others. The rational being that the government was willing to pay a contractor more money on salary or contract if it freed up another soldier to serve in the front line. A similar rational drives the current military today as it seeks to maximize its troop strength on the tip of the spear and fill out the tail with contracts.

The service and support tasks done by contract or by others varied from driving wagons, sewing and mending clothing and equipment, to laundry, nursing and medical care to servants and in many cases to military staffs themselves. Quite opposite of the German tradition of wanting to serve on a staff and take part in sculpting operations the Continental Officer held staff jobs in low esteem and wanted rather to be in the thick of the fight.

Previously I mentioned contractors and others. Contractors were pretty much similar to what we have now. In fact there were even companies who specialized in military contracting as we have now. Other contracts were done by individuals bidding directly, or through the Congress or even through states. The logistics situation, to include manpower procurement, was complex and very untidy.

The others I mentioned are those people who did not have a formal contract with obligations and rights but rather who still preformed similar functions sometimes with rations or small piece pay or for no pay at all. These others included women who accompanied the troops, most often wives, volunteers, and slaves.

The role of women proved far more interesting then most historians let on. Very few were prostitutes thought this is the common imagery. Simply put being a camp following prostitute was stupid as Continental soldiers were rarely paid. Most of the women were wives of poorer soldiers who simply had no place else to go and often brought their children along as well. Typically these women and children were put on the official ration scale of the army at the rate of on one woman per every fifteen soldiers. It was not a free ride though as they were expected to sew, wash, cook, nurse, and follow military regulations as applicable in exchange for their rations.

The story of the use of slaves and free blacks as well as gentlemen volunteers is what really sets this army in its own time frame rather then ours. The notion that much of the staff work and generals aides would be serving as non-military and with out pay is a strange and almost alien concept now.

In total this book is very well researched and it is a needed topic in order to understand military life and operations in the Continental Army. However this author while being a very good historian did not turn in a very easily readable text. The flow of the text is hurkey-jerky with awkward sentence and paragraph construction. It is written more in a Marxist academic style then a good narrative style. This back and forth and restating of certain themes over and over again in different ways makes the book a ponderous and plodding read. In the end it is a valuable addition to our understanding but poorly presented.

To say Camp Follower one immediately thinks of the harlots that followed armies through out history.

This book pretty much puts a stop to that image though such women did exist most women who followed the soldiers in the field were anything but. In addition it covers all others who served teh armies in the field in a supporting role.

Though it covers only the American armies of the revolution it can pretry much serve to enlightenthe reader about those of other armies of the times as well.

Nicely written. Well organized. Easy to read.

A must read for anyone interested in the history of warfare.

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