Three pounds was a lot money for a working man in Scotland in the mid-1770s. More than two months’ pay for a laborer, it was. What better enticement for men from the highlands of Scotland to flock to recruiting officers raising a new corps, the 71st Regiment of Foot, in late 1775 and early 1776? […]
John Sutherland had intended only to visit his brother, and now he sat in confinement, awaiting a death sentence. It was not a likely fate for the forty-one-year-old private soldier who had always borne “a very good Character” during his eighteen years in the army, except for an occasional bout of intoxication, a common vice […]
“About five weeks after he made his escape from Prospect hill,” Augustine Barrett told the board of inquiry, “he was confined in the Prison Ship at Boston where he continued between 5 & six Months.” Barrett was stating his case to a board of officers convened to settle claims of British soldiers owed paid and […]
In today’s trial, see if you agree with the court’s verdict and sentence. In determining guilt, the court considered several factors: was the man enlisted properly as a soldier in the first place? Had he been paid and provided clothing in accordance with his enlistment contract? Did he have a good reason for his absence? […]
Desertion was a capital crime, but it was up to a general court martial, a board of thirteen officers, to determine the defendant’s guilt and assign a punishment. In today’s trial, see if you agree with the court’s decision. The court considered several factors to determine guilt: was the man enlisted properly as a soldier […]
If a British soldier was absent without leave, he might be charged with desertion; if caught, he could be tried by a general court martial, a board of thirteen officers. The court looked at many factors in deciding guilt and sentencing punishment. In today’s trial, see if you agree with the court’s verdict and sentence. The […]
In this second trial, see if you agree with the court’s verdict and sentence. In determining guilt, the officers of the general court martial considered whether the man enlisted properly as a soldier in the first place, whether he been paid and provided clothing in accordance with his enlistment contract, and whether he had a […]
This week JAR Editor Don N. Hagist presents the testimony from five British desertion trials held during the American Revolution. For each trial, see if you agree with the court’s verdict and sentence. British soldiers charged with desertion were tried by a general court martial, a board of thirteen officers tasked with determining whether the […]
Drums, fifes, and bands provided martial music ranging from battlefield signals to ceremonious pomp. The drummers, fifers, and musicians might also provide casual entertainment for their comrades, but some soldiers played other instruments. The most common non-military instrument to appear in deserter advertisements was the fiddle (or violin); it was the most common among non-military […]
There were drummers, there were fifers, and then there were men who had general musical talent, capable of playing several instruments. Many British, American and German regiments, and other military organizations, had bands of music. These bands, which might consist of six to twelve men, were separate entities from the regiment’s drummers and fifers. In […]
Fifes provided a melodic complement to the drums that provided cadence and conveyed signals to armies in the American Revolution. Like drummers, fifers were not always boys; some men spent their entire military careers playing the fife, showing the importance to the army of that skill. Fifers were not as numerous as drummers in most […]
Primary sources are essential for the best historical scholarship and writing. This week we will be examining advertisements for deserters who played instruments in the armed forces during the American Revolution. Every army and navy involved in the American Revolution used drums for signaling, and the image of the drummer boy is among the conflict’s […]
Deserter advertisements and runaway notices, fascinating though they are, provide only single elements of what were certainly more complex stories. In rare cases, further research reveals much more about a person. Take this ad, for example: Twenty Dollars Reward. Deserted from Captain Jacob Mauser’s company, of the sixth Pennsylvania regiment, on Monday the 11th instant, […]
Desertion was as much a problem for the British army as it was for the American. Once the war began, however, British officers seldom placed ads for deserters in newspapers. This may be because the British army was largely confined to areas around major cities where information about deserters could be circulated in army orders, […]
Newspapers are among our favorite things at Journal of the American Revolution, providing endless information and insight about America’s Revolutionary era. In addition to news, notices, and opinion pieces, newspapers carried advertising that reveals important aspects of the people who placed ads and read them. Some of the ads were actually about people. When soldiers […]
Read the newspapers published during the American Revolution, and you’ll find descriptions of deserters. It doesn’t matter which newspaper, or whether it was published in an American-held or British-held location; men deserted from the American, British, French and German regiments serving in America, and their officers sometimes advertised rewards for their return. Looking deeper into […]
