The British Army in 1775

 

In 1775 Great Britain depended on the Royal Navy to maintain trade and project British power.  Throughout the war the British could strike when and where they would along the virtually undefended American coastline. 

The British army numbered 48,000 men, about a quarter of the size of the French army.  Unlike the navy which depended on conscription and impressment for manpower, the British Army at the time of the American Revolution was a volunteer force. 

Volunteers were farm laborers or the unemployed, and usually in their early twenties.  A life in the army provided steady pay, regular meals and an escape from poverty.  The non-commissioned officers were the backbone of the army and insured strict discipline and rigorous training.

As the war progressed, the army expanded rapidly.  Some fifty thousand British soldiers fought in America. 

Two short periods of impressment were tried, in which unemployed men were taken into the army.  This proved so unpopular in Britain that it was quickly abandoned. 

The British turned to a well-established eighteenth century custom to augment their numbers namely hiring foreign auxiliaries.

Approximately 30,000 German troops were hired by the British to fight during the American Revolution. Most of these troops were from the German princely state of Hesse-Cassel, and hence the term “Hessians” came to be applied to all German troops in America no matter which princely state from which they may actually have originated.

Soldiers were a major export for Hesse-Cassel.  Boys were registered for military service at the age of seven.  Men from the ages of sixteen to thirty presented themselves annually for possible induction.  School dropouts, bankrupts, and the unemployed could be inducted at any time.  Life in the Hessian army was marked by harsh discipline, but had economic benefits.  Wages were higher than farm work and there was a promise of additional official money from the sale of captured military property.  There was also the lure of making money by plundering civilians, which although officially forbidden was widespread.

Early in the war, the Continental Congress devised a plan offering fifty acres of land, freedom to practice their religion, and civil liberties to German deserters.  Thousands of former Hessian soldiers did indeed remain in America after the war.