The Problems Facing the Continental Armies During the Revolutionary War

A Most Undisciplined and Profligate Crew In the time of the American Revolutionary war, many problems plagued the two Continental Armies. They suffered a lack of food, supplies, clothing, as well as support from their own countrymen and neglect from Congress. In 1775, the first Continental Army was characterized as the Republican Constabulary. It was mainly consisted of men who possessed land or a business that they felt the need to defend and answered the call from Congress. They believed that they would be fighting for a short period of time before they could go back to their normal lives.

Congress said that they would be fighting for “our wives and children, with everything that is dear to us, [being] subjected to the merciless range of uncontrolled despotism.” As well as for “engaging in the cause of virtue, of liberty, of God.” This army was not truly militaristic, though it appeared to be initially. The soldiers did not adhere to strong discipline nor rigorous training, and only lasted a year before they disbanded after the British offensive of 1776 against New York.

The second continental army began with the remaining men from the republican constabulary. George Washington became general, and from the beginning called out for a “respectable army”, and began to build it with soldiers signing on for long-term enlistments, then put the army through a rigorous training regimen. He held them to a high standard of discipline, and gathered all the able bodied men the states and congress could enlist to endure the entirety of the war.

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One of the problems that plagued the army was the manpower shortages. While Congress and the states did their best to entice more soldiers with promises of decent food and clothing, as well as the guarantee of free land at the war’s end, there was never a great rush to enlist into the army. So the states resorted to other measures. Several of the states did all they could to enlist able bodied men, such as New Jersey in 1777, which started granting exemptions to people who hired or enrolled substitutes for service. Such as slave owners and masters of indentured servants, when the slaves and servants were forced into service. This was followed by Massachusetts declaring all blacks free or slaves to be eligible for the state draft. Then in 1778 Maryland allowed vagrants to be impressed into nine months of consecutive service.

The result was that the army was largely constituted by vagrants, indentured servants, slaves, drifters, unemployed laborers, and even captured British soldiers. They were all people with not much to lose, and possibly something to gain from service. If they could survive camp life, with all its rigors, carnage and killing diseases that demolished parts of the army, they could possibly receive a chance at a better life with the free land and bounty monies they were promised to recieve. The slaves and indentured servants even stood a chance at freedom. However, another problem that plagued the army arose fairly quickly to interfere with the promise of food, decent clothing and many of the promises from congress. While it is fairly common knowledge that the soldiers in the war usually went without, one of the reasons why is fairly surprising. The problem that the army faced-surprisingly- was the total lack of support given to them by their own countrymen. The soldiers of the army were viewed with contempt from the civilians, and treated with blatant mistrust and disrespect. Without the support of the country itself, congress found it hard to support all units of the army.

This led to the spring of 1779, when the Jersey Brigade filed several petitions to congress that “unless a speedy and ample remedy be provided [for the lack of supplies] the total dissolution for your troops is inevitable.” This resulted in the petitions being ignored, which further angered the brigade. A final petition was sent to congress, declaring that unless action was taken, the brigade would resign its services as a group. This was a major step towards becoming openly defiant towards civil authority. If the example had been followed by the rest of the army, it could have meant the end of the rebel’s cause. Congress eventually was able to meet the brigade’s demands, but the event stands to illustrate the dire situation of supplies that th rebels faced. In conclusion, the two Continental Armies of the Revolutionary War faced scorn for fighting for their liberty from their own countrymen, starvation from lack of supplies, lack of decent clothes, and disease. They were put through harsh regiments by their generals, and neglected by Congress. The army was made of a majority of people with not much to lose, and something to gain. They faced the carnage of war for liberty, land, and often because they had to. There was no true glory associated with the war for the soldiers, for them it was a time of dedication and misery.