America Goes to War: A Social History of the Continental Army (The American Social Experience Book 26)

Charles Patrick Neimeyer examines the actual composition and motivations of the Continental Army during the American Revolution, challenging popular mythology. The common image of the patriotic Yankee Doodle farmer-soldier driven by ideals of liberty and national unity does not match historical reality. Neimeyer reveals that the army primarily consisted of those outside the emerging American aristocracy: African Americans, Irish, Germans, Native Americans, laborers-for-hire, and "free white men on the move." These soldiers were rarely motivated by altruistic patriotism. The book documents the true makeup of enlisted ranks, the roles of African Americans and Native Americans in the army, and widespread instances of mutiny, desertion, and resistance against officers and government. Neimeyer provides the first comprehensive and historically accurate portrait of who actually served as Continental soldiers and why.