Most national armies have a history. Higher ranking officers have spent years rising through the ranks. Older soldiers have stories of battles they tell to younger recruits. In the 18th century British Army, new recruits went through extensive training before they were sent to join their regiments. The Continental Army did not have this luxury. Militia units had been drilling frequently in the months before the Battles of Lexington and Concord, but very few of these men had actual military experience. When the first shots were fired, these militia units from across New England (and eventually the entire east coast) had to join together and form a cohesive fighting force. This was done with varying levels of success. Rhode Island’s Army of Observation, commanded by Nathanael Greene, was noted for its well-organized camp.
The war was long and there were many opportunities to gain experience, and to learn from mistakes. At the start, the troops were not used to military discipline, and many of the officers were not used to commanding and managing troops. This led to many problems. A very common one was the issue of mutinies. Soldiers experiencing the unpleasant and sometimes hazardous conditions of military life for the first time, might not be particularly receptive to the orders of their officers. Aside from mutinies, general disobedience was quite common. Another problem, which likely severely worsened those previously mentioned, was a lack of supplies. For the duration of the war, the Continental army almost always had some sort of supply issues. Some of these arose from a lack of government funds. Others were a result of inexperience or poor communication by those in command.
In one instance, in the fall of 1776, a force of Rhode Island troops was being deployed to New York for the defense of that city. Their captain, Loring Peck of Bristol, was apparently not present with them for the journey across Narragansett Bay from Newport. No one reminded these men to bring fresh water with them on the boat, which led to them being severely dehydrated by the time they reached Fort Liberty in Newport Harbor late the following day. This anecdote comes from John Smith, a serjeant in Peck’s Company who kept a diary of his service. Smith also records an instance during the march to New York when he and another man of his company were confined overnight as a result of a “dispute” with their captain. Aside from the singular instance of a lack of fresh water (which can be attributed to a lack of communication from the company’s officers), the soldiers frequently lacked food. This is a common theme in accounts of service with the Continental Army. Joseph Plumb Martin is famous for his memoir of Continental service, which contains many lines about a lack of supplies. Loring Peck’s men didn’t carry food with them on the march. Instead, they foraged. This could mean anything from taking a few apples from a tree or shooting a wild turkey, to plundering houses they were marching past.
Mutinies and desertions in the Continental Army were common. Mutinies are only important enough to merit a passing mention by officers whose men were not directly involved. Much of the information known about the clothing worn by Continental soldiers comes from deserter advertisements in newspapers. Mutinies seem to have usually consisted of the soldiers arming themselves and joining in a formation at a time which had not been ordered by their officers. They might then either threaten to march home, leaving the officers without a regiment to command, or simply refuse to return to their quarters, if their demands (often related to pay) were not met. It was essentially the 18th century military equivalent of a strike. Israel Angell’s Second Rhode Island Regiment mutinied in 1779, while it was encamped in King’s County, Rhode Island. Angell himself was on the other side of Narragansett Bay at the time. By the time he had gotten to his regiment, the mutiny was over. One of the mutineers, George Milliman (probably one of the instigators), was arrested and sent away to be dealt with. Months later, he escaped from his imprisonment in Providence. Deserters might have some of the same motivations as mutineers, but they dealt with them differently. Instead of rallying their comrades in a public protest, they would simply leave. The Bristol Militia Company under Captain William Throope lost a couple of men to desertion in 1777 during Joseph Spencer’s expedition. Perhaps these men, who had been drafted into service, had had enough of the stormy weather and decided to return home. Thomas LeFavour, a formerly enslaved man, deserted from Christopher Greene’s Regiment in 1780. Maybe he decided that he shouldn’t have to earn freedom from the government, and instead chose to take it by himself.
Bibliography
Field, Edward, editor. Diary of Colonel ISRAEL ANGELL Commanding the Second Rhode Island Continental Regiment During the American Revolution 1778-1781. Preston and Rounds Company, 1899, Providence, RI.
Martin, Joseph Plumb. A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier. Signet Classics, 2010, New York, NY.
Rau, Louise. “Sergeant John Smith’s Diary of 1776.” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, vol. 20, no. 2, 1933, pp. 247–70. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1896993. Accessed 14 Mar. 2025.
Rev War Bristol 