The Unpopular History of the United States by Uncle Sam Himself/Chapter 6
VI
PESTERING FATHER WITH POP-CALLS
The great human heart of Washington beat sympathetically with his people. He understood that men of kindly feelings, fresh from all the tender associations of domestic life, “are not sufficiently fortified to stand the shocking scenes of war. To march over dead men, to hear without concern the groans of the wounded, few men can endure such scenes unless steeled by habit or fortified by military pride.”
It pestered Father mightily to have these pop-call volunteers blowing in on him and blowing out again. Some of them never tarried long enough to hang up their hats. They had implicit confidence in George, and were willing to leave it to George. But if George ever got them haltered and tied, he made soldiers to brag of: “Our soldiers are as good as ever were, and were the officers half as good as the men they would beat any army on the globe of equal number. But neither officers nor men have the requisite subordination and discipline.” His come-and-go militia did not consider themselves bound by the same restrictions as governed the Continental regulars, and destroyed what little discipline Washington succeeded in hammering into his men.
Looking only at the cost, throughout the Revolution it would have been far cheaper to maintain fifty or a hundred thousand Continentals, rather than half as many, and depend for the balance upon hastily gathered militia. Huge levies were employed, which accomplished nothing, and cost more money than a permanent establishment.
In those days folks held a powerful strong prejudice against a standing army, as being dangerous to liberty. A standing army may be dangerous, but believe me, son, a running militia is worse.
Now get this notion straight in your head: As I have said and will say again, it is not a question of the courage and patriotism of the individual volunteer. Men who were not hardened to seeing their friends shot down beside them, not accustomed to hearing the moans of wounded comrades, simply couldn’t stand it, no matter how great their individual courage. Revolutionary volunteers were brothers, sons, and fathers of the Continental regulars, those sturdy and steadfast troops who stuck through it all, from first to last; they became veterans, as good as ever trod shoe leather. Between eight and ten thousand Continentals, starving, freezing, and naked, never thought of giving up throughout that terrible winter at Valley Forge. And had it not been for this resolute group the cause of libery was lost.
On the other hand, their inefficient brothers of the militia generally spread disorder, mutiny, and panic until Washington said that “the militia was more hurtful than helpful to the cause of independence.”
Washington had about 8,000 militia of this kind to oppose Lord Howe on Long Island. The British outnumbered him two to one. Washington was beaten. A repulse does not necessarily destroy an army of trained soldiers. A good drubbing may only make a bunch of veterans grit their teeth and stand firmer. It riles ’em. But if you defeat the militia and start ’em to turning tail, they take the route to scatteration. It is mighty pitiful to hear the old General telling about how his troops behaved on this humiliating day. Washington heard the first shots of the battle and galloped to the front. Instead of finding his men fighting valiantly on the battle line, they were flying in every direction, with their officers striving in vain to rally them. Washington succeeded in stopping the rout for a minute, until a squad of 60 or 70 redcoats appeared in the distance. Then the panic-stricken militia bolted away from their Commander-in-Chief and hustled hot-foot through the woods without even remembering that they carried guns.
A standing army might have stood, but the running militia didn’t. They got started, and kept going, going, gone—never halting this side of home. They deserted Washington by companies, by half regiments, almost by whole regiments. On account of their lack of discipline and refusal to submit to any kind of restraint, Father at this time admitted that he had lost confidence in the generality of his troops. As a result of which the British occupied the City of New York.
Washington immediately wrote to Congress that “our liberties must be greatly handicapped, if not entirely lost, if their defense is left to anything but a permanent standing army. I mean, one to exist during the war.”
The Commander-in-Chief now faced an entire dissolution of his army, which congregated and separated like the crowds in a moving picture show.