Soldiers' Revolution: Pennsylvanians in Arms and the Forging of Early American Identity

337 Pages·2003·8.62 MB·English

by  Gregory T. Knouff

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The Soldiers’ Revolution
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Image not available
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Gregory T. Knouff
The Soldiers’ Revolution
PENNSYLVANIANS IN ARMS
AND THE
FORGING OF EARLY AMERICAN IDENTITY
The Pennsylvania State University Press
University Park, Pennsylvania
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Disclaimer:
Some images in the original version of this book are not
available for inclusion in the eBook.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Knouff, Gregory T., 1966–
The soldiers’ revolution : Pennsylvanians in arms
and the forging of early American identity / Gregory T. Knouff
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index
ISBN 0-271-02335-X (cloth : alk. paper)
1.Soldiers—Pennsylvania—History—18th century.
2.Pennsylvania—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—Influence.
3.United States—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—Influence.
4.Pennsylvania—History—1775–1865.
I. Title.
E263.P4K57 2003
973.3’448—dc22
2003022422
Copyright © 2004The Pennsylvania State University
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press,
University Park, PA 16802-1003
The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the
Association of American University Presses.
It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to
use acid-free paper. Publications on uncoated stock satisfy the
minimum requirements of American National Standard for
Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Material, ANSI Z39.48–1992.
Frontispiece: A Revolutionary-era German drawing of an American
rifleman and a Continental soldier from Pennsylvania.
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania (hsp), Stauffer Collection,
attributed to D. Chodwiecki.
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contents
Acknowledgments vii
Abbreviations ix
Introduction xi
1 Conflict and Community on the Eve of Revolution 1
2 Why They Fought 35
3 Identity and the Military Community 77
4 The Meaning of the War Against the British 119
5 Race and Violence on the Frontier 155
6 Civil War and the Contest for Community 195
7 The Memory of the American Revolution 233
Conclusion 273
Essay on Sources and Methodology 287
Index 297
v
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acknowledgments
My greatest intellectual debt is to my graduate school mentor, Thomas P.
Slaughter. His scholarly brilliance and enthusiasm for doing the work of pro-
fessional history were inspiring. I thank him for the fine training I received
under his guidance at Rutgers University. Tom and many other historians have
provided useful critiques of parts, incarnations, and the whole of this mono-
graph over the span of more years than I care to recall. Anything valuable in
this study is due to their help; the problems that remain are my sole responsi-
bility. Thanks to Stephen Aron, Wayne Bodle, Jean Boydston, John Chambers,
Robert Churchill, Paul Clemens, Richard Dunn, John Frantz, Sara Gronim,
Susan Klepp, Mark E. Lender, James McPherson, Jacqueline Miller, John
Murrin, William Pencak, Elizabeth Perkins, Daniel Richter, Carroll Smith-
Rosenberg, Jean Soderlund, and Marianne S. Wokeck. I must express, too, my
special appreciation of Peter Messer’s close friendship over the years and his
incredibly helpful critical reading of the entire manuscript. Our conversations
also provided much-needed comic relief when we both pondered how to remain
sane in sometimes insane circumstances.
I am deeply indebted to Peter Potter of The Pennsylvania State Uni-
versity Press for both his interest in my work and his consummate professional-
ism as a skilled editor. I thank Laura Reed-Morrisson for her superb copyediting
of the manuscript. Thanks also to the readers for the Press, Ronald Schultz and
Charles Neimeyer, for their close readings of the manuscript and very helpful
suggestions.
Various librarians and archivists facilitated my work. Foremost among
them is my good friend David Fowler, the former director of the David Library
of the American Revolution, who read and commented upon this project and
vii
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viii acknowledgments
introduced me to the library’s fine holdings. Indeed, the David Library is the
preeminent single repository for the study of the American Revolutionary era,
and most of my research was conducted there. I would also like to acknowledge
the assistance rendered me by the staffs of the Alexander Library at Rutgers
University, the American Philosophical Society, the Darlington Memorial
Library at the University of Pittsburgh, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania,
the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, and the Library Company of
Philadelphia.
Additionally, I would like to thank the David Library of the American
Revolution, the McNeil (then Philadelphia) Center for Early American Stud-
ies, and the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis for fellowships that allowed
me to conduct vital research. They also furnished collegial forums for intellec-
tual exchange. Keene State College provided me with a course release to work
on writing the book.
It is my privilege to work with extraordinarily fine colleagues in the
history department at Keene State. In particular, I would like to thank David
Stowell and Matthew Crocker for commenting on parts of this book. David Price
closely (and painfully) read the entire manuscript when it was a six-hundred-
page monster and offered helpful suggestions. Curiously, his usual response—
“burn it”—was not among them. I cannot overemphasize my appreciation for
the close friendship and tireless support of the chair of my department, Andrew
Wilson. I have never known a more gifted intellectual, able leader, or selfless friend.
Versions of Chapter 5of this book appear in essay form in “Soldiers and
Violence on the Pennsylvania Frontier,” in Beyond Philadelphia: The American
Revolution in the Pennsylvania Hinterland, ed. John Frantz and William Pencak
(University Park, Pa., 1998), and “Constructing a Revolutionary Racial Fron-
tier: Whiteness, Warfare, and Early American National Identity,” in Friends and
Enemies in Penn’s Woods, ed. William A. Pencak and Daniel K. Richter (forth-
coming from The Pennsylvania State University Press). In addition, my article
“‘An Arduous Service’: The Pennsylvania Backcountry Soldiers’ Revolution,”
Pennsylvania History61(January 1994): 45–74, contains early versions of some
of my analysis in Chapters 2and 5.
In the end, my greatest gratitude goes to my wife, Beth Staudt, who
shared her life with me through it all. I thank her and our newborn son, Steffen
Byron Knouff, for showing me the things in life that really matter.
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abbreviations
AO12 Records of the American Loyalist Claims Commission, 1776–1831,
Public Records Office, Great Britain, Audit Office 12
AO13 American Loyalist Claims Commission Papers, 1780–1835, Public
Records Office, Great Britain, Audit Office 13
DLAR David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing,
Pennsylvania
DMC Draper Manuscript Collection, State Historical Society of Wisconsin,
Madison, Wisconsin
HSP Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
LCP Library Company of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
NYHS New-York Historical Society, New York, New York
PA Samuel Hazard et al., eds., Pennsylvania Archives (Philadelphia and
Harrisburg, 1852–)
PCC Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, National Archives,
Washington, D.C.
PMHB Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
PRG Records of Pennsylvania’s Revolutionary Governments, 1775–1790,
Record Group 27, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commis-
sion, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
RG-2 Auditor General, Revolutionary War Pension File, 1809–1893, Record
Group 2, Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
RWPF Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application
Files (M804), National Archives, Washington, D.C.
WMQ William and Mary Quarterly
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