The British Army during the American Revolutionary War served for eight years of armed conflict, fought in eastern North America, the Caribbean, and elsewhere from April 19, 1775 until the treaty ending the war, September 3, 1783. Britain had no European allies in the war, which was initially between Great Britain and American insurgents in the Thirteen Colonies. The war widened when the American insurgents made a formal alliance with France (1778) and gained the aid of France's ally Spain (1779).
In June 1775, the Second Continental Congress, gathered in present-day Independence Hall in the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia, appointed George Washington commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, which the Congress organized by uniting and organizing patriot militias into a single army under the command of Washington, who led it in its eight-year war against the British Army. The following year, in July 1776, the Second Continental Congress, representing the Thirteen Colonies, unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, an iconic and historical document largely written by Thomas Jefferson, addressed to King George III, which articulated why the delegates to the Congress felt were declaring themselves free and independent from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Adoption of the Declaration served to both inspire the cause of independence in the Thirteen Colonies and also formalized and escalated the Revolutionary War.
For several years, the outcome of the war was uncertain and indecisive. But on October 19, 1781, the British Army was defeated at the Siege of Yorktown by a combined Franco-American force supported by the French navy, led the British to conclude that the war in North America could not be won, forcing them to forfeit the Thirteen Colonies in eastern North America in the Treaty of Paris, which they signed in 1783, though sporadic fighting continued for several additional years.Holmes (2002), p. 21
When the American Revolutionary War commenced, the British Army was a volunteer force that had suffered from a lack of peacetime spending and ineffective recruitment in the decade since the Seven Years' War.Fortescue (1902), p. 172 In 1776, to offset this deficiency, the British Crown hastily hired German Hessian mercenary contingents, who supplemented their fighting capabilities and served with regular British units for the rest of the war. In 1778, limited army impressment was introduced in England and Scotland to bolster the army's size, but the practice proved unpopular and was suspended until being reintroduced two years later, in 1780.
The attrition of constant fighting, the decision by the Kingdom of France to ultimately lend considerable naval and army support to the cause of American independence, and the withdrawal of a sizable number of British forces from North America in 1778 were all factors in the British Army's ultimate defeat. At Yorktown in 1781, the British Army, then led by Charles Cornwallis, was forced to surrender, contributing to the Whigs gaining control of a parliamentary majority, which brought offensive British military operations in North America to an end.
Structure and recruitment
Britain had incurred a large national debt fighting the Seven Years' War, during which the armies' establishment strength had been increased to an unprecedented size. With the ascension of peace in 1763 the army was dramatically reduced to a peacetime home establishment of just over 11,000 men, with a further 9,750 for the Irish establishment and 10,000 for the colonies. This meant 20 regiments of infantry totaling just over 11,000 men were stationed in Great Britain, 21 regiments were stationed in Ireland, 18 regiments were stationed in the Americas, and 7 regiments were stationed in Gibraltar. Alongside this, the army could call on 16 regiments of the cavalrymen and 2,712 men in the artillery. This gave a theoretical strength of just over 46,000 men exclusive of the artillery. The British government deemed this troop strength to be inadequate to prosecute an insurrection in the Americas, as well as deal with defence of the rest of its territories. Treaties with German states (mainly Hesse-Kassel and Brunswick) were negotiated for a further 18,000 men half of which were stationed in garrisons to release regular British units from other theaters. This measure brought the Army's total establishment strength to around 55,000 men.
Parliament suffered chronic difficulties in obtaining sufficient manpower,War Office Papers, Manuscripts in the Public Record Office, 1:992–1008, passim and found it impossible to fill the quotas they had set.War Officer Papers, 4:275, Jenkinson to Clinton, 5 December 1780 The Army was a deeply unpopular profession with one contentious issue being pay. A private infantryman was paid a wage of just 8d. per day,9th Report on Public Accounts (1783) in 39 House of Commons Journal, H.M. Stationery Office, 1803, pp. 325–344 the same pay as for a New Model Army infantryman 130 years earlier.Plant, 2007, "The New Model Army" The rate of pay in the army was insufficient to meet the rising costs of living which did not help entice potential recruits,Fortescue, Volume III, p. 41 as service was nominally for life.Wheeler, 1914, p. 90
To increase voluntary enrollment, Parliament offered a bounty of £1.10s for every recruit.War Office Papers, 3:5, Harvey to Elliot, 10 March 1775 As the war dragged on, Parliament became desperate for manpower; criminals were offered military service to escape legal penalties, and deserters were pardoned if they re-joined their units.Clode, 1869, Vol. 2, pp. 13–14
Impressment, essentially conscription by the "press gang", was a favored recruiting method, though it was unpopular with the public, leading many to enlist in local militias to avoid regular service.War Office Papers, 4:966, Jenkinson to John Livesey and E. Brewer, 13 April 1779 Attempts were made to draft such levies, much to the chagrin of the militia commanders.War Office Papers, 1:996, Sir William Codrington to Barrington, December 1778 Competition between naval and army press gangs, and even between rival ships or regiments, frequently resulted in brawls between the gangs in order to secure recruits for their unit.War Office Papers. 1:998, Lieutenant General Parker to Barrington, 19 June 1778 Men would maim themselves to avoid the press gangs,War Office Papers, 1:1005, Oughton to Jenkinson, 27 May 1779 while many deserted at the first opportunity.Andrews, 1912, p. 32 Pressed men were militarily unreliable; regiments with large numbers of such men were deployed to remote garrisons such as Gibraltar or the West Indies, to make it harder to desert.War Office Papers, 4:966, Jenkinson to Amherst, 26 October 1779
After the losses at the Battles of Saratoga and the outbreak of hostilities with France and Spain, the existing voluntary enlistment measures were judged to be insufficient. Between 1775 and 1781, the regular army increased from 48,000 to 121,000. In 1778 the army adopted some non traditional recruiting measures to further augment its strength, a system of private subscription was established, whereby some 12 new regiments totaling 15,000 men were raised by individual towns and nobles.
The same year, the government passed the first of two recruiting acts which allowed a limited form of impressment in parts of England and Scotland under strict conditions, however the measure proved unpopular and both acts were repealed in May 1780, permanently discontinuing impressment in the army. The recruiting acts of 1778 and 1779 also provided greater incentives for voluntarily joining the regular army, including a bounty of £3 and the entitlement to discharge after three years unless the nation remained at war.Fortescue (1902), p. 506 Thousands of volunteer militia battalions were raised for home defence in Ireland and England, and some of the most competent of these were embodied to the regular army. The British government took a further step by releasing criminals and debtors from prison on the condition they joined the army. Three entire regiments were raised from this early release program.
In November 1778 the establishment was set at 121,000 men, of whom 24,000 were foreigners, along with 40,000 embodied militia, for a total of 161,000 men. This was raised the next year to 104,000 men on the British establishment, 23,000 on the Irish establishment, 25,000 Hessians, and 42,000 embodied militia, for a total force of about 194,000 men.
Leadership
The Commander-in-Chief, India formally held command over crown forces in the East Indies and the Commander-in-Chief, North America commanded crown forces in the Americas. However, the British Army had no formal command structure, so British commanders often worked on their own initiative during the war. The position of Commander-in-Chief of the Forces remained vacant until 1778 when it was given to Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst who held it until the end of the war. However, his role in advising the government on strategy was limited and Amherst found himself primarily occupied with the organisation of home forces to oppose the threatened invasion in 1779, and suppress the outbreak of severe anti-Catholic rioting in 1780.
The direction of the British war effort ultimately fell to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, George German. Despite holding no formal position in the army, he appointed or relieved generals, took care of provisions and supplies, and directed much of the strategic planning. While some historians argue that Sackville performed effectively and even brilliantly, others argue that he made several miscalculations and struggled to hold genuine authority over his subordinates in the army.
The officer corps
Although a large portion of the rank and file were lower class and the officers upper class, the army of the mid-1700s recruited officers from a variety of social backgrounds.Hagist (2012) Officers in British service could purchase commissions to ascend the ranks,Duffy, 2005 , p. 61 and the practice was common in the Army.Forteseue, The British Army, 1783–1802, p. 34 Values of commissions varied but were usually in line with social and military prestige; for example, regiments such as the Guards commanded the highest prices.Armatys, 2005, "The Purchase of Officers' Commissions in the British Army"
Wealthy individuals lacking any formal military education or practical experience often found their way into positions of high responsibility, diluting the effectiveness of a regiment.Lanning, 2009, pp. 193–196 However, according to Reid, the Georgian army through necessity drew its officers from a far wider base than its later Victorian counterpart and was much more open to promotion from the ranks.Reid (2002), p. 11 Officers were required to be literate, but there was no formal requirement on the level of education or their social standing, and most regimental officers did not come from the landed gentry, but from middle class private individuals in search of a career.Reid (1995), p. 2 The system of sale of commissions which officially governed the selection and promotion of officers was, in practice, considerably relaxed during wartime, with far more stringent requirements placed on promotion. Many British officers were professional soldiers rather than wealthy dilettantes and showed themselves ready to discard their drill manuals and use innovative methods and tactics.O'Shaughnessy (2013), pp. 6–7