Oh That I Was a Soldier

NO POPULAR PERCEPTION OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION HAS BEEN SO PERVASIVE as the imagery of the Spirit of '76. It evokes the notion of noble sacrifice, of virtuous ordinary citizens abandoning their daily pursuits in order to seize their weapons and fight a despotic foe. Indeed, when hostilities with Great Britain erupted in 1775 a Rage Militaire swept across the colonies. Manuals explaining martial techniques poured off the presses and citizens rushed to hone their skills in military exercises. Young boys and old men took up arms, some in the local militia, others in the Continental Army. ' Among those choosing to bear arms were many who had been activists in the protracted political controversy with the parent state. Philip Schuyler and John Sullivan left the Continental Congress to serve as officers under another former congressman, George Washington. Other members of Congress, such as John Dickinson and Patrick Henry, went on to serve in their colony's trainband units. Some radicals-like Philadelphia's Joseph Reed, who joined Washington's staff, and Quartermaster General Thomas Mifflin-relinquished lucrative positions in order to further the war effort. Of course, not all able-bodied men became warriors. One who did not was John Adams. Not that he did not wish to bear arms. He yearned to wear a uniform, to march off to battle. Yet he never became a soldier. In fact, the War for Independence was not the only armed conflict that Adams encountered. The French and Indian War began when he was twenty-one years old. He also wished to soldier in that struggle, but he never served. During his presidency, moreover, the Quasi-War with France occurred, once again confronting him with the anguish and strain of a likely state of war. Adams's experience provides a unique opportunity to study the stresses faced by

Anguish · Art · Epistemology · Psychoanalysis · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Military and Defense Studies · Philosophy · Psychology

• The Fatal Land

  Matthew Dziennik•Journal of American History•2016

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