RECREATION IN CAMP
If there must be a certain proportion of work and play in every one's
life to make for efficiency, then the soldier of the Revolutionary War
was far below normal in the scale of efficiency for recreation in any
organized form is found to have been entirely lacking.
But before too severe a judgment is placed upon this lack of recreation
the conditions the soldier left at home must be studied. Recreation as
such had not been a part of his daily routine. It has been estimated
that nine-tenths of the people lived in rural districts leaving only
one-tenth for the cities,[114] an estimate which no doubt is true. The
people had never thought of the problems of bad housing, congestion,
or recreation. They had had the whole of nature for their home and the
whole of the frontier to wrestle with.
Speaking of the people a generation or two later, Dr. F. L. Paxson
says in _The Rise of Sport_, "The fathers of this generation had been
sober lot unable to bend without breaking, living a life of rigid and
puritanical decorum interspersed perhaps with disease and drunkedness,
but unenlivened for most of them by spontaneous play."[115]
Thus in studying the life of the soldier at home before he went
into the army camp, even the slightest traces of twentieth century
recreation are found to have been lacking, but that does not mean that
those people never forgot their work. It would be hard to find a more
hospitable group. They were never too busy to entertain. There was the
occasional jollification with rum or beer, the card party, the ball,
the concert, the theater, and of a more rural type the picnic and the
"corn husking".[116]
The conditions in camp were different than those at home. The problems
of bad housing, congestion and recreation were then factors to be
considered. There was the small unsanitary and poorly ventilated hut
with twelve to sixteen men and sometimes even more crowded into it.
When the troops first went into winter quarters there was plenty to do
in the way of exercise for there were logs to cut and huts to build,
but those were soon completed and the men were crowded together with
nothing to do.
Something had to happen, the monotony of the dreary days had to be
broken. This was brought about in several ways.
Often the punishments ordered by the court martial were administered
publicly in camp just to enliven the common routine. When a man was
sentenced to death, but had been pardoned by those in charge, the
force of going through the punishment was carried out. The condemned
man was brought to the side of his newly dug grave, he was bound and
blind-folded, the firing party got in position, the fire lock even
snapped, and as might have been expected, the culprit sometimes died of
the shock.[117]
The hanging of a man was a gala day in camp and the place of hanging
was almost as popular as an amusement park of today; "Five soldiers
were conducted to the gallows according to their sentences. For the
crimes of desertion and robbing the inhabitants, a detachment of troops
and a concourse of people formed a circle around the gallows and the
criminal were brought in on a cart sitting on their coffins and halters
about their necks"[118]
It was frequently stated in the sentence given by court martial that
the punishment whatever it was, riding the wooden horse, riding the
rail, receiving the biblical "Thirty-nine" lashes, or running the
gauntlet,[119] was to take place at some time when all the soldiers
were together as at the beating[120] of the retreat or at the head of
the regiment.[121] Punishments ordered by court martial in that way
served two purposes. They furnished amusement for the soldiers at the
same time the purpose for which they were intended, that of making an
example of the misbehavior of one of the soldiers.
While the Virginia riflemen were in camp at the siege of Boston there
was a practice which served both as a source of amusement and as a
display of marksmanship. There were two brothers, one of whom would
place a board five inches wide and seven inches long with a bit of
white paper in the middle of it about the size of a dollar, between his
knees while the other at about sixty yards distance would shoot eight
bullets through it without injuring the brother.[122]
The duel was another common practice which seemed to furnish amusement
besides deciding the honor of some individual.[123]
Hunting, too, was a means of cheering the dreary days, but this too
was often "Killing two birds with one stone", for often the soldiers
went hunting to provide the regular rations, but at other times it was
done just for the sake of the sport to be found in it. The following
is taken from a New York paper of December 12, 1785. "A Fox hunt. The
Gentlemen of the army with a number of the most respectable inhabitants
of Ulsler and Orange purpose a Fox Hunt on the twenty third day of this
instant to which all Gentlemen are invited with their hounds and their
horses. The game is plenty and it is hoped the sport will be pleasant *
* * "[124].
Along with the hunting frays went fishing[125] and nutting[126] trips
which added a little variety to the ordinary camp scenes. There were
several days celebrated by the Americans at that time which meant a
holiday for the soldier with perhaps an extra allowance of rum[127]
or meat. Some of those days were Christmas, Thanksgiving, Fourth of
July, May day, Commemoration of the French Alliance, or a celebration
following a victory. The celebration usually consisted of a parade, a
sermon by the chaplain followed by a banquet and perhaps a dance for
the officers, and extra rations for the privates.[128]
Another celebration mentioned by several diaries and one which seemed
to be a joyful occasion was as one writer said "and (we) convert(ed)
the evening to celebrate as usual wives and sweethearts which we do in
plenty of grog".[129]
There were a few games which served to shorten some of the long dreary
days for the soldier, some of them were; fives,[130] shinny,[131]
goal,[132] ball[133] and a kind of football.[134] No description of
the above games has been found, but to judge by the context they were
all outdoor games.
The diversions discussed so far in this chapter have all been outdoor
games, but the real test came when the soldiers were crowded into
the huts during the winter months with nothing to think of but their
own miserable conditions. Since no one had thought of organizing the
soldier's leisure time he had to invent something for himself. The
first things thought of, naturally, were the amusements which had
existed at home. Card playing came to his mind, but in the army the
game of cards or any other game of chance was absolutely forbidden
by order of congress and the commander-in-chief. "Any officer,
non-commissioned officers, or soldier who shall hereafter be detected
playing at toss up, pitch and hustle or any other games of chance in
or near the camp or villages bording on the encampments shall with
out delay be confined and punished for disobedience of orders * * *
The general does not mean by the above order to discourage sports of
exercise and recreation, he only means to discontinuance and punish
gaming".[135] In another order Washington said, "Men may find enough
to do in the service of their God and their country without abandoning
themselves to vice and immorality".[136]
Dancing had been another form of entertainment at home but that
too was usually impossible because of the lack of room. That was
especially true at Valley Forge and other camps, but at Morristown,
however, a large room in the commissariat store house was reserved for
dancing,[137] lodge meetings, and the like for the masons had chapters
in the army camps.[138]
At home the soldier had also had his friends and dinner parties, now
he had soldier friends, but the only way for him to keep in touch
with former friends was by letters and that was a very irregular and
uncertain way for mail could only be sent from camp or brought to camp
when some one was going home on a furlough or new recruits were coming
into camp.[139] The nearest the soldier came to his social dinner and
evening at home was the rallies from barracks to barracks when every
body who could sing sang.[140]
As for the officers in camp, their leisure time was better provided
for. They lived in better quarters, generally, at least larger ones.
They, too, had the advantage of being entertained at the homes of the
people living in the vicinity of the camp. Even if one's imagination
must be drawn upon in order to make the recreation of the private seem
recreational, at least, there was a side of camp life which presented
a more pleasant picture "If our forefathers bled and suffered they
also danced and feasted."[141] The letters and diaries of the young
officers tell of the gaiety of the war. Even in midst of the gloom at
Valley Forge there was drinking from cabin to cabin and dinners in
honor of visiting foreigners. No sooner was the army in winter quarters
than the ladies began to appear, for Mrs. Washington, Mrs. Greene, and
Mrs. Knox made it a practice to spend the winters with their husbands.
Mrs. Washington was in the habit of saying that she always heard the
last cannon fired in the fall and the first one in the spring.[142]
As soon as the wives appeared, the gaiety began among the families
of the officers, the dinner was the favorite method of bringing
the families together. "General Greene and his lady present their
compliments to Colonel Knox and his lady and should be glad for their
company tomorrow at dinner at two o'clock".[143] Often the dinners were
in name rather than in reality, for officers and privates suffered
alike when food was scarce, but the social time did not depend entirely
upon the supply of food. One such dinner is described as having been
potatoes with beech-nuts for dessert.
The usual round of pleasure for the officers was dancing, dinners,
teas, sleighing parties, horse-back parties, or the celebration of some
day or event. Of the dance General Greene wrote on March 19, 1779, "We
had a little dance at my quarters a few evenings past. His excellency
and Mrs. Greene danced three hours without one sitting down upon
the whole we had a pretty little frisk".[144] Another such affair is
described as follows: "There were subscription balls in the commissary
store house at which Washington in black velvet, the foreign commanders
in all their gold lace, General Steuben being particularly replendent
and the ladies in powdered hair, stiff brocades and high heels made a
brilliant company."[145]
In the large it can be said that, the recreation of the American soldier
during the Revolutionary War, was invented to supply the need felt
rather than an institution thought out before. Some of the practices
would hardly be classed as recreation, but they helped to break the
monotony and that was the object desired whether it was by enjoying a
fellow soldier's punishment or playing an innocent game of ball.
[Footnote 114: Sherrill, _French Memories of 18th Century America_, p.
181.]
[Footnote 115: Paxson, F. L., "_The Rise of Sports._" _Miss. Valley
Hist. Review_ Vol. IV. p. 143.]
[Footnote 116: The facts pertaining to society at home has been
collected from books of travel of the period just previous to the war;
Chastellux, _Travels In America_; Sherrill, _French Memories of 18th
Century America_ and others.]
[Footnote 117: Belcher, _The First American Civil War_, Vol. II, p. 83.]
[Footnote 118: Thacher, _Military Journal_, (April 20, 1779) p. 158.]
[Footnote 119: Barton, _Journal_ (Aug. 22, 1779) p. 7., Hearts,
_Journal_ Sept. 9, 1785.]
[Footnote 120: Hearts, _Journal_ (Sept. 9, 1785) p. 68.]
[Footnote 121: Coits, _Orderly Book_, (July 10, 1775), p. 43.]
[Footnote 122: _Virginia Gazetta_, 1775 quoted Hart & Hill, p. 229.]
[Footnote 123: Thacher, _Military Journal_ (Feb. 1779) 155.]
[Footnote 124: _New York Packet_, Dec. 12, 1782, quoted in _Am. Hist.
Mag._ Vol. III p. 389.]
[Footnote 125: Elmer, _Journal_ (June 24, 1779) p. 81, Livermore,
_Journal_ (May 27, 1779) p. 180.]
[Footnote 126: _Military Journal of Two Private Soldiers_, p. 77.]
[Footnote 127: Clinton, _Order Book_ quoted by Headley, p. 265.]
[Footnote 128: McHendry, _Journal_, (Dec. 9) p. 211, and (Sept. 25,
1779) p. 207. Blake, _Journal_, (July 5, 1779) p. 39; Linermore,
_Journal_, (July 5), p. 182; and (Sept. 25, 1779), p. 188; Norris,
_Journal_, (July 5, 1779), p. 225., Hardenberger, _Journal_ (Sept. 25,
1779) p. 184.]
[Footnote 129: Burrows, _Journal_, (Oct., 2, 1779) p. 50, Elmer,
_Journal_, (July 3, 1779) p. 84.]
[Footnote 130: Shute, _Journal_, (June 13 and 14, 1779) p. 268.]
[Footnote 131: Ibid., (July 23, 1779) p. 264.]
[Footnote 132: Lyman, _Journal_, p. 118.]
[Footnote 133: Ibid. and _Military Journal of Two Private Soldiers_, p.
70.]
[Footnote 134: Fitch, _Journal_, (Sept. 14, 1775) p. 57.]
[Footnote 135: Washington, _Orderly Book_, quoted by Ford, _Writings of
Washington_, Vol. III, p. 155.]
[Footnote 136: Washington, _Orderly Book_, quoted by Ford, _Writings of
Washington_, Vol. III, p. 429.]
[Footnote 137: Trevelyan, _American Revolution_, Vol. IV, p. 54.]
[Footnote 138: _Penn. Archives_, Vol. II, p. 18.]
[Footnote 139: Fitch, _Journal_, (Dec, 5, 1775), p. 88.]
[Footnote 140: Humphreys, _Catherine Schuyler_, p. 177.]
[Footnote 141: Humphreys, _Catherine Schuyler_, p. 167.]
[Footnote 142: Ellet, _Domestic History of the Am. Rev._, p. 40.]
[Footnote 143: Greene, _Life of Greene_, Vol. I, p. 193.]
[Footnote 144: Greene, _Life of Greene_, Vol. II, p. 161.]
[Footnote 145: Humphrey, _Catherine Schuyler_, p. 176.]