George Washington's Enforcers

George Washington's Enforcers
Author :
Publisher : SIU Press
Total Pages : 298
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780809386550
ISBN-13 : 0809386550
Rating : 4/5 (50 Downloads)

Book Synopsis George Washington's Enforcers by : Harry M. Ward

Download or read book George Washington's Enforcers written by Harry M. Ward and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2009-10-08 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A well-disciplined army was vital to win American independence, but policing soldiers during the Revolution presented challenges. George Washington’s Enforcers: Policing the Continental Army examines how justice was left to the overlapping duties of special army personnel and how an improvised police force imposed rules and regulations on the common soldier. Historian Harry M. Ward describes these methods of police enforcement, emphasizing the brutality experienced by the enlisted men who were punished severely for even light transgressions. This volume explores the influences that shaped army practice and the quality of the soldiery, the enforcement of military justice, the use of guards as military police, and the application of punishment. Washington’s army, which adopted the organization and justice code of the British army, labored under the direction of ill-trained and arrogant officers. Ward relates how the enlisted men, who had a propensity for troublemaking and desertion, not only were victims of the double standard that existed between officers and regular troops but also lacked legal protection in the army. The enforcement of military justice afforded the accused with little due process support. Ward discusses the duties of the various personnel responsible for training and enforcing the standards of behavior, including duty officers, adjutants, brigade majors, inspectors, and sergeant majors. He includes the roles of life guards, camp guards, quarter guards, picket men, and safe guards, whose responsibilities ranged from escorting the commander in chief, intercepting spies and stragglers, and protecting farmers from marauding soldiers to searching for deserters, rounding up unauthorized personnel, and looking for delinquents in local towns and taverns. George Washington’s Enforcers, which includes sixteen illustrations, also addresses the executions of the period, as both ritual and spectacle, and the deterrent value of capital punishment. Ward explains how Washington himself mixed clemency with severity and examines how army policies tested the mettle of this chief disciplinarian, who operated by the dictates of military necessity as perceived at the time.


George Washington's Enforcers Related Books

George Washington's Enforcers
Language: en
Pages: 298
Authors: Harry M. Ward
Categories:
Type: BOOK - Published: 2009-10-08 - Publisher: SIU Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A well-disciplined army was vital to win American independence, but policing soldiers during the Revolution presented challenges. George Washington’s Enforcer
George Washington's Nemesis
Language: en
Pages: 389
Authors: Christian McBurney
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-12-20 - Publisher: Casemate Publishers

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This biography attempts to set the record straight for a misunderstood military figure from the American Revolution. Historians and biographers of Charles Lee h
The Department of War, 1781–1795
Language: en
Pages: 312
Authors: Harry M. Ward
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 1962 - Publisher:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Harry M. Ward examines the formative years of the Department of War as a microcosm of the development of a centralized federal government. The Department of War
George Washington
Language: en
Pages: 52
Authors: Cheryl Harness
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2006 - Publisher: National Geographic Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Presents the life of George Washington, focusing on the Revolutionary War years and his presidency.
General George Washington; Exemplar-in-Chief:
Language: en
Pages: 49
Authors: Major A. J. Straley
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-08-15 - Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

George Washington was an “Exemplar-in-Chief” who had an indelible influence on the nature and character of the early Continental Army, an influence that set