Post-War Militarism

Yesterday I asked about the military-nationalist campaign's links to politics and ideas later in the decade. Now I want to think about the whole question of the military and how it relates to politics and ideas in the 1780s.

Periodisation] There are three key phases of military existence in the 1780s. First, while the war is still going on - and early 1781 was by all accounts a low-point in the rebel campaign. Second, the period after Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown in October 1781, until the army was disbanded through late 1783. Third, from then onwards. The middle period is obviously critical; the Newburgh Conspiracy is the dramatic crux; Washington's resignation is the moment of resolution.

Groups within the army] It clearly can't be seen as a homogenous whole. Continentals are different from militia. Within the Continental Army there are still separate state lines, as well as Northern and Southern departments. There is also obviously a division between officers and men. Among the officers, there are differences in rank, and between field and staff officers. Among rank-and-file, some enlisted for the whole war, some for only a year or two; different men had had different wartime experiences. To what extent, then, can we speak of a 'military mindset,' or 'militarism' and who did it effect?

Relations with civilians] This complex internal structure is reflected in complex relations with the outside world. Because enlistment periods were often short, and movement in and out of the army (or from the militia to the army) was relatively fluid, rank-and-file soldiers were not always easy to distinguish from civilians. Yet soldiers and civilians were mutually hosile over issues like supply, biletting, and behaviour. This could translate into animosity towards the civil government, Continental Congress. On the other hand, lack of power in Congress was blamed for the supply and support problems. Likewise, state governments at different times seemed to both hinder and help soldiers, Continental and militia.

On this basis, it's hard to envisage a clear-cut military perspective emerging or surviving after the war's end. This is borne out, perhaps, by the way pro-military policies waned during mid-decade. The ideology of citizen militia was in a sense fulfilled by the soldiers' return to the fields during 1783. However, at the officer level there was a conscious effort - in the Society of the Cincinnati - to prolong and reproduce the military brotherhood. Public memory and historical writing must also have played a continuing role. How did these processes interact with politics and ideas in the 1780s?