Different than duck hunting. So youve got to give the men practice. They would each get two flights before they were sent overseas as gunners but youd have women often flying these planes this is a shot of two women flying this b17 while it shoots at the target of the other plane. This is live ammunition, of course. It is no good to use fake. Live ammunition, color coded bullets. They did this with a wide variety of different planes. These women served as civilians until the 1970s when they started a Grass Roots Campaign to be recognized as veterans. Its an incredible campaign, and they finally were given veterans benefits. This is at the congress after they testified. This is 1977 when president carter finally recognized them as veterans in the United States. All of their papers are here if you want to serve as interns in the womens collection, we have that. And you can work with their papers directly. But again, we could have an entire semester on women in war and this is just a quick and dirty version of it. If youll just when we walk away from class here as we conclude, think about women in these three ways of working here in the United States, domestically and abroad and thatll help you kind of organize your thoughts. Do you guys have any questions or any final ideas or thoughts about this . Okay. Well, thank you guys very much. And well continue our conversation in our regular class on thursday. Good job, guys. Thank you. Appreciate it. Have a good day. Thank you. You, too. Good job, guys. Thanks. Were featuring American History tv programs this week as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan 3. For our final lectures in history night we swing through the south starting in atlanta at emory university. Professor Carol Anderson discusses efforts in the early 1960s to register africanamerican voters in mississippi. American history tv tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan 3. Follow the federal response to the coronavirus outbreak at cspan. Org coronavirus. Watch congress, white house briefings, and updates from governors. Track the spread throughout the u. S. And the world with interactive maps. Watch on demand any time unfiltered at cspan. Org coronavirus. Up next a comparison of the american and British Forces during the revolutionary war. Baylor University Professor julie anne sweet compares the advantages and disadvantages of each during this hour 10 minute class. When we last met, you all declared independence. So that means we have to go to war. In order to do that we need to recruit troops, train them, arm them, all those things. Before we do that i want to talk just briefly about military history in general. Were going to set aside our political history for now. The next couple weeks, military history all full go. So here is the thing. There are certain challenges that folks who study military history are going to encounter. What are some of the things you can see military historians having problems with . History being written by the winners. I like to change it up and say to the winners go the history because what they end up doing is theyre the ones that are going to tell the story. But this is the way it usually works. So you usually get their perspective. Were going to see that a lot in this war where youve got a lot of the patriots, a lot of the American Revolution stuff. One of the reasons why i had you read the spring chapter was so you can get the british perspective because their version is just a little bit different. What are the challenges . There is a lot of uncertainty with who won what battle and all that stuff. You do run into some uncertainties. Again, lots of different perspectives here. You may have some bias. Generals like to make themselves look good. Wars are nice for promotion. And so, yeah. Youve got to be really careful about your sources. As historians you know that. You know you dont take everything at face value. You also got to be careful with the military guys. Just because theyre generals, officers, doesnt mean theyre always right. Anything else, other things . Okay. You also have issues with how trying to reconstruct a battle because so much is going on and there is so much chaos. People are shooting and theres death. Sure. It is very chaotic. Yes, youll walk in with a plan. Yes, you are going to have certain objectives that you want to obtain. But like we were talking about with the battle of bunker hill, who won . Well, the british take the field but they take the higher casualties. So aim not really sure. Well run into that a lot here. Wars are messy. Battles are challenging. Were not really sure how things change up. And everybodys perspective is different depending on where youre at. If youre a private in the front lines your version is going to be a whole lot different than a general sitting on the horse way back on the hill. Anything else . Other problems . Differences in how battles are fought over time. Sure. And it is. You got to remember the time period, folks. All right. This is something well mention several times today. You have to remember the time period. What year is it . 1776. All right. We are in 76. Im actually going to back it up a year for us. Because we need to create our army, get us going, all that kind of stuff. Yeah. 76, 75. Nevertheless, thats where were at. You need to remember what people wear, what people carry, how they use this, what your objectives are, what you can do. Otherwise, its just not going to happen. Think backwards. This is early modern era. So we have much more in common with those folks, the medieval folks, your early modern folks, than anybody else thats coming here on. There is a lot of technology that changes in the 19th and 20th centuries. Were not going there. Havent heard of it, dont know what its about. Remember your time period. Things are very different. Very close combat. Not a whole lot of range. All that kind of good stuff. So thatll be really important, too. The good thing about military history is that it is becoming really popular nowadays. We are on the up and up. Unfortunately, you have been in some sort of military conflict your entire life. And so this is something that youre accustomed to, used to, part of every day life on the news and what not. And thats a good thing for military historians because it makes it much more popular. 30, 40 years ago this was not a subject you could talk about. For all sorts of different reasons. But we can now. Its getting really popular. Were working to push the envelope here at baylor, too. Were doing our thing, doing our part as far as the military history is concerned. This is your thing. This is your moment. So yeah. Enjoy it. Get onboard. As far as thats concerned. We do run into special challenges as far as the American Revolution is concerned. Big thing is going to be sources. Going back to the fact that youve got this chaotic, your bias, uncertainties, all that sort of stuff. Add to the fact that we dont have a lot of guys who wrote things down. Joseph barton that were going to read toward the end of the semester, fabulous guy, great book, one person out of all of the folks that served. Sure weve got a couple documents from washington and a couple of the other guys but as we were saying that is a very a small snippet as far as what all these different folks what happened, what they experienced. That is going to be a real problem. Were also going to have to work around a lot of mythology. Think about it. Valley forge. All of a sudden you all start thinking. Oh, its snowy and cold and, you know, wrapping their feet up in bandages and that sort of thing. Thats legit. It happened. Okay . Im not making it up. Nevertheless, you have this whole kind of aura like ooh patriots, good guys. Ding. Not so much. Okay . These guys did some atrocities on both sides. When we get to the war in the south it gets really messy. It gets really ugly on both sides. So you got to remember theres a lot of, you know, i dont hate on George Washington, but he did make some mistakes here. Hes going to make quite a few, as a matter of fact. Kind of a little preview of things to come. So we do need to watch out for that. So yeah. Its also very much an east coast thing. Were in texas. When i say revolution, yall probably thinking alamo. Different revolution, folks. This one is the guys on the east coast. And so were a little far away from that. So would love to take a ride out that way. Not happening though. Theres that. So yeah, remember this. Its very different here in 1775. Battles are small. Theyre very close. Theres all sorts of difficulties, challenges that are very different from what you may be used to from other wars, more modern conflicts and what not. So theres that. All right. So this is just military history in general. Things to think about before we move forward. So lets set up our two sides. All right. Were going there. All right. Lets talk the british first. Yes, i am intentionally using red. What sorts of advantage do our british folks have . What have they got on us, ryan . They have an established officer corps. Yeah. And theyre actually pretty good. All right. These guys know theyre professionals. These are guys that have been doing it for 30, 40 years on many different continents. This is not the first war. This is not their first rodeo, folks. All right . And so, yeah. They have got the experience. Theyve got the know how. They can change things up. We like to think these guys came in there blind, didnt know what they were doing. They were wedded to the book and all that kind of stuff. Thats not the case. These guys are good. All right . We need to realize that and appreciate it. What other advantages have they got . They had the biggest naval fleet. Yeah. Can we say navy . Hello. Yes. The royal navy. Ha. Lets talk about them. 270 war ships. How many have the americans got . None. Thank you, france. All right. But yeah. We dont have this is going to be a this is one of the reasons why we will not engage on the high seas because we know we cant win there. All right . But the navy is also hugely important for transport. They can get supplies. They can move men and materiel. They can get all sorts of things different places and what not. And, yeah. This is definitely something thats in their side that there is no way we can catch up to them. Anything else . They sort of have kind of the offensive initiative. They are working, playing offense. Okay. And theyre going there. They have to subdue a continent. Well talk about that. Nevertheless they have the might on their side. What else . Other things . They have more training. Lots of training. Goes back to your officer corps. Theyve also got, going along with that, contingent with your royal navy, the army. 55,000 soldiers strong. Again, very good at what they do. One of the great things about matthew springs article shows you just how diverse this force is. We always like to joke about like oh, the british army, this well oiled machine thats just going to come in like some bulldozer and take over the colonies and what not. Thats not necessarily the case. These are men, too, that are fighting for a paycheck and what not, going, doing their dirty and all that. But theyve got their issue. They got their reasons why theyre doing this. Because these rebels are rebels. And theyre getting uppity as far as being englishmen is concerned. Nevertheless, they are very good and have lots of training. The military mindset, ready to deploy versus the americans . Yes. Going along with your training. We are starting from square one on every possible front. We have no government. We have 13 random colonies. Theyre not talking to each other. Youll have, also, its a mess. Nevertheless, these guys, yeah. Theyre ready to go. Theyve been doing this for hundreds of years. Theyve been deployed here in the colonies before. And so, yeah. Theyre just theyre well trained. Theyre excellent at what they do. Okay. Going back to my soldiers we got about 55,000 of those. Who else is fighting in this army besides british soldiers . Were going to have about 30,000 hessians. Now, before we go complaining about hessians, where is this coming from . Georgia 3rd and all the georgias, theyre german. They have that in their background. These folks are mercenaries. Theyre guns for hire. Everybody does this. This is classic, standard, european tactics to go ahead and hire these guys. Sure, maybe it looks bad from the colonial side of things but this is just the way they operate. Okay . Look at the numbers, folks. Not all of these folks are going to be deployed in the colonies at the same place at the same time. But theyve got that in their background. Going off of that, too, theyve also got the population to draw from. About 9 Million People living in england right now. All right . You got a lot of folks. Again, about 2. 25 of those are eligible for service but nevertheless they got people that they can replace. The colonies, youve got about 2 million folks in all of the colonies. Thats including men, women, children, and slaves. All right. So theres a lot of theyve got the numbers to go along with this, too. So all right. We got a lot of military. What else have they got . Thats working for them . Everything is standardized. Whether its uniforms or guns, artillery. Its not piece meal. Sure. And again, its just a new war, new place is the thing. Theyve done this before. Elsewhere. So theyre going with that, too. Yeah. Kevin . Going along with that, they have a well practiced system of quarter masters. Sure. Supply. Now, supply will be a bit of a challenge for them. Something you need to remember is that theres a big ocean in the way. All right . Yes, they are able to use canada. Yes, they are able to use their west indies. This is where the royal navy comes in. Nevertheless, its a long way back to england for orders. Okay . Think back to poor general gauge who is stuck in boston waiting to find out what happened. What do i do now . Well, its, hes got to wait for that. Same thing goes with supplies. Were going to see this several times where things theyll have to pull back because they need to make sure they got an exit strategy. Other things were not thinking about. Okay. This is all military stuff. And i get that. You also need to remember theyve got a government and an economy. Both of which can support a longterm military operation. Again, what have the colonies got . Bunch of assemblies and they just threw out all their governors. All right . Good luck with that. The declaration of independence, we read it. You voted on it. Dont remember reading about a government in there. All right . Just a list of why king george is a bad guy. So meanwhile, again, these guys, hundreds of years theyve been doing this, folks. They know what theyre doing and theyre ready to go. Game on as far as their group is concerned. There are some things working on our advantage as well. Like what . What have we got . Home field advantage. You got to know your terrain. Never go to war without a good map. All right . These guys, yes. They know what theyre doing. Maybe theyve been here before. But we know all those rocks and creeks and trees and indian paths and what not and they are not so sure about that. Weve got that going along with that we also have lots of territory. Because we are on defense. As long as washington has an army in the field, the United States exists. If you look at that map theres a lot of places to hide, a lot of places there are a lot of places he can hide. There are a lot of places you can go to. When you look at the win loss column, he will not have a lot in the win column. But hes still there, drag it out. Take as long as you can. That way, wear them down. Eventually maybe they will give up. It doesnt sound like the most honorable, fancy way to win a war but it gets the job done. Thats all that matters. We have more on the line in regards to pride and principles. Sure. Our people are watching. All right. Definitely. We like to call this the cause. Your flag or whatever you want to call it. There is a reason. Besides being homefield advantage, it is your home. It is your family. It is your farm. It is why you came here. You are going to fight tooth and nail to defend that. We get further into the south, a lot of times thats all its going to come down to. Which colors burn in your cornfield. That is your enemy is. Is going to get real personal, real partisan by that point. Nevertheless, that does motivate them. Sure, they got the numbers and training. They have nothing at stake here. These guys do. Thats where its at. This is home. They dont want to be a conquered people. Anything else . They are close enough to get orders relatively quickly. They are also close to their farms and stuff. Sure. The supply lines are much shorter. Washington is going to make certain not to steal from neighbors. Valley forge is such a mess because farmers want to make the most money so they sell to the british. Doesnt sound very patriotic. They have to make money, too. Thats where they go with that. Supply lines are shorter. Communication lines are shorter. We have to run to philadelphia to check to congress. Instead of waiting months and years to be able to get something from overseas. Thats an important part of that. Anything else . The prospect of foreign alliances. Yeah. Who in particular . Professor france. France. Yeah. The french. Canada and quebec are the lost colony. Nevertheless, the french are looking for revenge. They have hated the british for time immemorial. This is a chance to get back at them. France may try a little backstabbing later on but yeah. We do have that. England, they are the baddest empire in the world. Everybody hates them. We can use that to our advantage, get some help on our size. Side. Anything else . A lot of areas, a friendly population. The civilians. Alright. Again, it goes back to the fact that this is home. Washington really does insist that his men treat them nicely. Whereas the british just trample over them, take advantage of the loyalists. When they really shouldve treated them with a bit more respect. I think the militia is really unique because it gives the americans, they have a lot of fighting experience but it also gives them the ability to quickly mobilize. Whereas the redcoats need to ship troops over or pull from loyalist population pools. The militia can instantaneously organize and fade back into the communities. This goes to our tactics. One thing that is different for us, guerrilla tactics or whatnot. It will eventually be an american way of war. Yeah, we hide behind rocks and trees. You deploy your local militia is your Defense Force when you need them. That is their advantage. We will talk more in a moment about the differences between the militia and the Continental Army. Those two need to Work Together. You have a force that you can call on at a minutes notice. British, not so much. Again, going back, these guys know their terrain. They know where their friends are. They can get their supplies. All of that helps work to our advantage. The british have to destroy all of this to be able to win. And i missing anything . Does the fact that we have less soldiers make it better for us in regards to military leaders trying to conserve death toll . We have few do we use them more carefully . It does help as far as mobility is concerned. Its not necessarily if this were a mass casualty event, no. Since we are close combat, numbers are small. A couple hundred thousand guys in the field at one time. Its a little bit of a mixed there. It depends on the battle. Anything else . Ok. This isnt really a military advantage. It helps that we came in the wake of the enlightenment period. We have printed rights, human rights. We can see clearly that they are being trampled on by britain. It gives us more patriotic pride and passion going into the war. Certainly. The fact that we have communication lines. We can play on that. We own the newspapers. We have the press. The press is usually important. They will be able to swing Public Opinion one way or another. Yes, we will have patriot presses. Not so much loyalist print. Thats what we are fighting for. We are fighting for specific objectives. More land, rights, economic opportunities. These guys, not so much. This is a job, a deployment for them. Ok. Now that we have are two sides together, we are doing this. We need to talk about the guy, the person his going off to fight this war. To do that, we need to talk about our materials. There are two hugely important pieces to be able to make an army work. You need the man and you need the weaponry. We need to figure out how that weaponry works. What i am passing out is our manual of arms. How to operate this machine. It also helps they are warming up the projector. I will pass some extras back. Secondly, i would be a poor supply officer if i didnt provide cartridges for your weapons. When he grabbed one of these and pass them around and whatnot. We will get to those in a sec. Dont get ahead of me. So, all right. My uniform today, i am Continental Army. The difference between how you can tell, it is pretty much we create the army in 75. Its a motley crew. We wear whatever we have. Your britches, your shirts, your coat. Its your interface that will tell you what color, what your rank is. Red is your ordinary soldiers. Gold or yellows will beer officers and whatnot. One thing that everybody is going to need is your musket. This right here. Stateoftheart. This is a replica of a 1756 flintlock musket. It is about 4. 5 feet long. Weighs about 10 pounds. This is standard issue. You will have this, you will own this and you will love it. Dont lose it, dont break it. It consists of three parts. Your lock which is this metal mechanism right here. Your stock which is this wooden part right here. And your barrel which is this long metal tube right here. Hence the phrase lock stock and barrel. The whole thing, the whole kit and caboodle. This is a smooth, it is a long tube of metal. It is not groove. When something is rifle, theres groups in here. When you put a ball in there, the groups give it a spin. You can actually aim this. You cant do that with this weapon. That is not the point. What we are going to do is walk through the manual. You will see how we operate this thing. We can all Work Together in conjunction to be able to win the battle. Here we go. First thing you need to do is halfyour weapon. You pull your flight back into the hathcock position. You cannot fire a weapon in this position, hence the phrase, halfcocked. You will handle your cartridge. You reach back into your cartridge box over here and pull out one of the cartridges which is what all of you guys have. Your cartridge consists of three things. Paper, black powder, a musket ball. Musket balls look like this. Large lead ball like so. You would make this an bullet molds while you are sitting in camp. They are different sizes. It is solid lead. Lead melts at a low temperature. All right. After you have handled your cartridge, you need to prime the pan. We need to put powder in here. What you are going to do is bite the tell off. You need to have two opposing a few things to pass the physical. You bite off the tail. You can do that. You are going to pour some powder into the pan right here. This is not real but powder. This is coffee. As much as we want to renovate, blowing up the wall is not the way to do that. We have some black powder in our pans. The next thing you knew im going to close it up like that. What you need to do is charger cartridge. Turn this around. You will pour the ball and the powder and everything back in here, down the barrel. Ram, pull this out. Ram your cartridge. Put it down here. Make sure you get it all the way down. Return your rammer. Dont lose this. Dont leave it in there either. Shoulder your cartridge. How long is 20 seconds. Lets see about that. Now remember, you are on a battlefield where there is other things happening, like people shooting at you, canon going off, drums cannon going off, drums being drummed, horses, all sorts of other things. Bang. 20 seconds, good man, good day. That means three shots a laughs minute. So there you go. What is the problem with this weapon . It takes forever. 20 seconds is a long time. That is why we counted out. And if you do something wrong somewhere along the way, it is not going to work. That is one reason why training is so important. It is a very precise weapon. Trust me, as a kid who has double charged a weapon before. You dont want to do that. And there is the weather. You may have heard the phrase, keep your powder dry. That is the point. If you have a rain shower, yes, the paper gets wet, the powder gets wet, marching while you have to cover up your lock and do the best you can, but nonetheless weather is a huge factor. What other problems have you got . Bulky. It is, it is very awkward. One of the good things about wearing a uniform like this is that it gives you all an idea of what you are working with. Not only are you going through all these different steps, but you are doing it in these clothes. So there is a lot of steps involved, and it is, it is awkward, it is heavier on one side. What else . If it gets messed up in any way, you are kind of screwed. Like i said, dont lose this, dont break this, all that kind of thing. What year is it . 1575. Ok. So this right here is a handcrafted work of art created by a gunsmith who made locks, stock and barrel, every piece of this by hand. Each one of these is going to be individually different. Thats why i say, dont lose it. You know how this sort of thing operates. If you break something, lose a part or whatever, we cant necessarily run to the nearest gunsmith and have them fix it or whatever. So that is a problem, too. Otherwise it is going to be just a very heavy club, essentially, if you break something. Other problems you could foresee . Very low likelihood of being able to hit anyone at a greater distance. So a lot of the full minutes worth of three shots, maybe one might hit someone . It is not an exact science. You put enough powder down here. One of the reasons why the barrel is so long and it is so bulky is that you need the weight. The longer the barrel, the longer you can get it. Probably about 50 yards is how well you will be able to hit something with this. When you leave here today, stop and look across, that is how close your enemy is going to be, so you do two or three shots and then while you are advancing you charge with your bayonet. And that is it. Like i was saying, remember the time period, it was very close combat, and that is the best you could do with this, because it is a smooth bore and the ball will go bouncing out the other end and hopefully hit something over there. Other problems . Flints wear out. Sure, you will have to replace this every 10 or 12 shots, depending on how good your flint is. I have broken flint, lost one before, so there are certain things that can happen with that. Any other problems you can see . User error. Operator error, always a problem. It is very complicated, that is one reason why you train and drill and train and drill and then you do it again, because there is all these different steps that go along the way. This is a shorter version of this. The longer version that the british are using is out here in our printed manual of arms. It takes about 36 steps. It is going to be a lot longer than 20 seconds, i can tell you that, but thank you baron von stipend for shrinking it down a little bit. There are lots of things that can go wrong with this, thats the problem. I dont know if anybody has used black powder, very gummy, very sticky, it will gum up, there are lots of problems and i need a of a little pic here to clear things out as best i can to get the powder out of my pan and whatnot. Any other problems you could foresee . Did the continentals have bayonets, or just the british . You cant really think someone off. Yes, what we have is the socket and thats this item right here. You lock into place and went to advanced on the enemy far enough you will use this like a club, speaker or sword and you go for the squishy parts. You want to thrust, turn it and pull it back out again. Its got this nifty triangle to it because what youre doing is creating a puncture wound. If you know your first aid, all right, puncture wounds are hard to close up. Again, thats where youre going for these nifty media points. Its not terribly sharp, its not swordplay or anything and were not going there. Nevertheless, its the other perspective this, you soften up the line before you charged with your bayonet. This is a big piece of this. You dont shoot with the bayonet on . You can, but it does throw off the balance ended balance ended is always a chance that the ball could bounce off. Other problems with the flintlock . How easy was it to hit someone with the bayonet part . It seems like it is not a spear, it looks like it would be relatively easy to move out of the way. To get out of the way and whatnot . You do have to remember the chaos and confusion we talked about, that works to your advantage. That is another reason we wear bright colors and have drums and flags and that sort of thing. That way you know the confusion and chaos and all of that and it will work to your advantage or disadvantage, depending on what side you are on. But yes, we were using these and we still have got them. How cheap would they have been . The expense, we are talking a good years wages. Very expensive. Thats another good reason to maintain it but it is something you all would he required to have as members of the militia. How would musket balls that are melted down from lad vary from the musket balls that are melted down from statues and stuff . Use the same light and you add something to it or whatever, but were not too concerned what it is we just want that to be able to take a man. Nothing is standardized. How much powder you can put in your cartridge, what size your balls are and all those things is whatever you come up with. Do we have rifles . We do. But they are very few and far between and 1778, only 3 of weapons in the field all rivals. Its really small. Theres a lot of problems with it and they are longer which is a challenge and the big thing is how long it takes to learn. You countdown are 20 seconds, try talking to minutes, all right. Its got the sleeve, its got those grooves in there and you have extra cool off in their and will take that much longer with the steps to it and you will have an occasional scouts that will be the ones that will have your rifles but its not what were using is the thing. And he other questions . One of our readings mentioned having a saber. Is that just for commanders, and were they ceremonial or could they be used in battle . They generally carried swords as a way to rally their troops and also to command, going this direction, going this direction, that sort of thing. We are not doing the king arthur and jousting and all that kind of stuff, but yes, that is usually what they are, and it is definitely an officers thing. An ordinary guy in the field is not going to be able to afford that. He may be carrying a tomahawk or a small knife, but that is more for personal use than it would be for battle. Why am i talking about this, spending so much time on this . Because this is the best that we have got, stateoftheart technology. This is going to determine what we can do in the field. Technology dictates tactics. You have to remember the time period, you have to remember what you are working with, because there are certain things we can do and certain things we cannot do this weapon. If it starts to rain, battle over. Done. There is also other possibilities. The terrain, you have to remember that. Sometimes the high ground is not always the best place to be. So you are not going to have little snipers pouncing on folks as far as ambushes and all that kind of thing. And it also ask planes what you see movies and the soldiers are all lined up, and you are watching with someone else and say, that is ridiculous, that looks dumb. That is what you are doing. The essential job is to fire a wall of light into the enemy to soften them up, so you can charge with the bayonet. This is all very, very different, and when we all start fighting battles and stuff, remember this. That takes care of our weapon. Now lets set up our army. As far as the chain of command is concerned, and this is ultraimportant, always follow the chain of command. At the top is going to be the continental congress. They are supreme. They are the ones we answer to. It would be nice if they would supply us, but we will work on that. But going back to advantages and disadvantages, Congress Really doesnt know what they are doing. They have the declaration of independence, but as far as their powers are concerned, extremely limited. We had a list of what the Second Continental Congress could do, print money but not raise taxes. That could be a real problem. But this is where we start with the whole civilmilitary complex. The military answers to the government. That is the way it works here. This is the way it starts. Just below is going to be your commanding general. Who is that . George, yes. Who deserves his own holiday, can i just say that, because the man is just awesome in so many different ways. Anyway, george is going to get the job in june of 1775. He wears a uniform to the meeting of the congress, looks the part, he doesnt have the most stellar career as followers as far as the military is concerned, but he does have experience. He has worked with the british and knows the inside track as far as how those guys operate. He is also a virginian. When we start the war in 1775, it is a new england thing. This is one of the complications we talked about when we said, should we declare independence . By getting a virginian to be in charge you are going to get that help, that assistance from a southern colony, which is hugely important. Also, virginia is one of the wealthiest colonies, see you definitely want them on your side. The way to score points with that is, put George Washington in there. He does his best, but he is also starting from square one. When he first gets to boston, he has to teach them how to dig latrines, cook food, basic hygiene as well as drill the guys and figure out how to use the weapon and all that stuff, as well as deal with regional politics and whatnot. His work is definitely cut out for him. And he doesnt necessarily do the best job at the beginning. There is a huge learning curve. He has a lot to learn, a lot of different forces in the field, this is all a problem for him. And he is not always everybodys favorite choice. He has to fight for his job and play to politics. Poor george, he has his work cut out for him here. Next you have your field army. These are your continentals. Thats me. They will be led by either a Major General or a Brigadier General who will then answer to washington. Washington is their main guy. They will be deployed in various places around the colonies, depending on where the british are. And down here is going to be your militia. These are your local Defense Force. I want to talk about militia for a bit. As we have already said, every man between the ages of 16 and 60 will be a member of your local militia. You will maintain your firearms, you will attend drill once a month, or you will be fined. And you are the gotwo guy. If there is some disorder or uprising among other farmers or with some enemy, or the indians arrive, or whatever, these are the guys you call. They grab their guns and go. Like i said, local Defense Force. They are an important part. And your local town, usually your local county, they were divided into counties as far as the colonies were concerned, however, as a force longterm, we have problems. What are some problems and challenges you have with malicia . They went to with militias. They want to go home and take care of their farms. Yes, they have selfinterest. That comes first, whether it is farm, family, their business, that sort of thing. And we shouldnt diss on them for that, because it is d voluntary sort of thing so they are not required to be there necessarily for longterm. Harvest time is usually the big thing when you are going to lose most of them. What are some other problems . Undisciplined, especially compared to regular soldiers. Yes. These guys pretty much did whatever they want. Yes, they are supposed to drill once a month. Really, you are probably getting together on the green, camping and drinking a lot. There are those that take it seriously, but really as far as when shots are being fired and you are literally under the gun, their force is going to cut and run. And they are unruly. And they are hard to discipline because they are a volunteer force. So when they do something wrong, you cant necessarily courtmartial them or discipline them like you can regular troops. So keeping these guys in line is difficult. Other things . They want to stay local. We will run into several instances where these guys will not cross boundary lines. Thats not my colony, not interested. They are not going to leave the county, not going to leave the local terrain, so they are a virginian or they are a carolinian. They are not an american. Again, it is the local Defense Force so they are keeping it local. What else . The level of training, because it is voluntary. Like, if they have time to drill or Something Like that, it is not necessarily what they are doing so it is not going to be the same caliber as the field army or the british army. Sure, they get training and get drill once a month, and yes, they do know how to operate their weapon, not trying to make them sound like a bunch of country bumpkins. But nevertheless, working together, working as a force, that is not their thing. So they dont have the discipline, the training to withstand a long campaign, or even a long battle for that matter. What else . There is not that many of them. Yes, much fewer. It consists of the guys in the county, and it is a wide range of ages here, folks. It can be dad and all his sons heading off together. As far as numbers are concerned, it is whoever comes out. Towns are small and that is what you get to work with. Any other problems . Would they elect their leaders . Yes, they would. Lets elect our officers, shall we . It does oftentimes turn into a popularity contest, like who is providing the best ale . Thats the guy who is going to be our next officer. It is popularity, not merit. The guys who know what theyre doing probably know better than to become an officer. Other problems you run into . Where did they get their funding . They are selffunded because it is a volunteer thing. But as far as supply and whatnot, you are right. Do we pay them . No. That is why they are not going to stay in the field very long. How are they going to feed them . Better bring provisions with them and forage as you will. So that is a problem too. How you supply is a big difficulty as well. What else . In the south there were also militias that formed of loyalists, but there is no guarantee they will be on your side. There is a loyalty question. And the south, this is one of the reasons why it could be so ugly is that its neighbor versus neighbor. Its not necessarily which flag and which cause you support it you stole my cows or i lost a court case to you or i fainted your family since you got here. It comes down to being that personal and you can switch size to and back to our supply and stuff. We also dont have a uniform at all. Ill be belligerent on thursday just so you know, the only thing you need is your weapon and you pretty much where whatever you want. How do you tell who is friend and who is fall . It becomes really challenging. Going back to the non discipline thing. The ugly thing that happens, things likes picketing your enemy where you want to stake through their foot to get on the top would be problematic. That big problems as far as their discipline. What any other problems with our militia . You cant expect they dont stay put, they are unreliable. Both short term and long term they dont have the discipline and they dont have the training to stay put. They are necessarily going to be long term as far as soldiering is concerned and will happen for weeks or months on end like you are a contracted soldier with the Continental Army. There are some problems here. Would be difficult for them to work with continentals, because the continentals dont trust them and think they are a lessqualified force . You absolutely run into huge problems. What we are going to have as our militia that are supposed to answer to your continentals. The continentals dont trust the militia because they have unreliable, undisciplined, cut and run stereotype. So yes, they have their advantages. Getting the two to Work Together is a real challenge. And every single battle we are going to see this. Sometimes it is successful, most of the time it is not, but they are a problem to work with. Despite all these problems, i wont call them advantages, i will call them benefits, i dont want to completely discount this force. What are some of the good things . They are everywhere. Yes, they are. Every man is required to do this so yes, no matter where you are, if you are in york county, virginia or poughkeepsie, new york, you are going to be able to pull these guys in. What else . They know the land better than anyone. All right. They know the creeks and the rivers and the indian paths and all those different places that nobody else knows, whether you are Continental Army, whether you are british army, all those different folks, you have to know your terrain, folks. And you can use that to your advantage as far as getting supplies, as far as being able to pick your battle, where that is going to happen, and using that to your best advantage. You cannot discount how important this is. What else . Did a large percentage of the militia have war experience from the first indian war . They dont necessarily have to have experience in a cut and dried battle. They have experience with that weapon, they have experience in hunting, experience in fighting in general. So they are not necessarily disciplined as far as a force, but are very comfortable in the field. So we can definitely use that to our advantage. Anything else . They are more tightknit since they know each other, have grown up with each other . Sure. They are connected. Often they have family ties. Lets go get all the uncles and nephews and the sons and we are all going off to war together. That the family sort of thing, yes, that really helps going back to the advantages. It is your home, it is your family, your farm, and you are that much more invested in protecting and defending it. And yes, bring everybody out while youre at it. What else . They have more incentive to fight because it is on their land and on their farms and they are going to want to defend . Sure, going back to the advantages. It is their cause. That is what they are fighting for, that is what they are the most excited about. So they are not going to leave their backyard because it is their backyard. That is what they are xo about so excited about, protecting it. Anything else . That they are selffunded, congress doesnt have to worry about them as much as the continentals . Sure. They can count on local supply, because they know the terrain and also know where the friendlys are, that can get them shelter and other supplies. So they are selffunded and can operate without having to talk to congress. Undisciplined and whatnot, it is a problem but it is also an advantage, because they are forced to do whatever they want, good and bad. Did they get any individual colony support . If someone was on paper fully qualified to be in the militia, how hard was it for them to be disqualified . Huzzah. Hip hip. Huzzah. Company dismissed. Most men will go, its part of being the rights and privileges of being a citizen. Its what you do you vote, your member of the militia, you sit on a jury, you do all those different things, its just part and parcel of being a citizen. Other questions about our militia. The other force in the field when you think about it is our continentals, created in june of 75. The trick with this is they will serve at first six months, two one year they will sign the contract, these guys are regular army right, with all the benefits of being a regular army which means you will have to obey orders which means youre going to have to add with them whether its mosquito or uniform, or pay which is a real challenge and supplies which is also problem gonna have some unique herself, but they have to stay that is one of the advantages that these folks they come and go these folks they have to go with their cold, and you want to philadelphia, or new york, valley forge, morristown where youre going you have to follow orders, so they are much more disciplined and trained now caveat to that, is this is new. This is something, again we are starting from scratch, we dont have some major warehouse wolf weaponry that we can do it send them off to fight the british, we are starting from square one. The street militia, another sign a contract, theres a lot of play in here, i dont want to make it sound like this is ready to go and take down the british army its going to take a long time were going to see the first couple of years, these guys need to get that experience, yes they have some experience they have been fighting wars for quite some time now, but nevertheless it is a learning experience especially in the long run, you have to watch the timing as well, sometimes the timing of battles will be depend on whether the contracts have expired. Because people want to go home. After this experience that theyve had, they will want to go home. That is part of this too, they have to say for the life of their contract, and we have the cause behind this. Especially at first theres a story, that everybody is on board and were all going to declare independence, and were taking your everybody and it sounds like a great adventure until you have been there for four months. Sitting around the campfire, starving and not getting paid. So then, it does fade overtime sure one of the advantages is, longer we draw this out the longer british fatigue will kick it and the longer we draw this out along the longer american fatigue will kick in this wealth british an american so you have to be careful with that you also have to watch out for the fact that what i said these guys are regular army think about all the experience weve had before this all those red coats that are staying in peoples houses, so thats why we broke away in the first place. We are skeptical of how do we fund this professional army, how we fund it had we treat it. So you have to be really careful as far as the army is concerned dont automatically think that these guys know what theyre doing because they dont. The training is going to take a while and yeah the same thing as far as your officers and whatnot there is a lot of go head and call it officer infighting whos in charge who deserves to be in charge washington is not the most well like guy in the world and theres other folks that we dont like that they cause problems and for washington, he is forever sending petitions to congress to try to help that, and they are saying we will do it someday. So you run into the sort of thing as well, so not everybody gets along. You have the same objective, everybody has a different way that they want to achieve that objective everybody has to throw the two cents in so this is sometimes a problem so what we are going to have are both of these forces in the field at the same time. Good things in bad things about that if you know how to do this right you can use the advantages of both of these for these guys to do the thing as far as causing problems with the british, hitting their supply trains, or wreaking havoc as far as their supply lines are concerned and relying on the Continental Army to get up and cleanup in regards to the hotly regular battle is concerned. We will take a long time for people to learn this. Washington served with british soldiers, he wants that traditional batter he he wants to win with honor. Sometimes this works, sometimes we will see coming into saratoga that these guys to a great job softening up the enemy, and these guys finish them off. The best is to be able to use both of these thered manage in the best possible scenario. The best possible scenario doesnt happen very often. Theres a lot of forces a play here, one of the reasons why can take us several weeks to fight this war, why would we spend time looking at all these different battles, because each one is very different. Theres always somebody something to be learned here. I was a lesson to be learned. Thats that big part of this. Its complicated that, and that is war, anyways questions about our capital army . Okay so, last thing we need to do, he point as i said as these each play out, last thing i want you to remember guys the Continental Army, is made of real people this is not a game this is not excess knows that we are just pretending shirt happened 250 years ago these are real men real soldiers who went off and fought so that we could be the people we are today and enjoy the freedoms that we have we need to remember that as we are Going Forward if anything we need to honor their sacrifices and not care what the policies are there are many women today right now were sacrificing their lives their time to be able to protect us to keep us safe so we can do this we can have a class, so we can enjoy the righ