Citizens Under Arms: Archeological observations on the American Revolution

Summary

Historian Jeremy Black described the War for American Independence as a new kind of war, a transoceanic conflict between a European homeland and its descendants fighting for independence, and one where the concept of citizens under arms played a primary role. Over the last several decades archeologists have investigated the campsites, battlefields, fortifications, and supply points of this conflict. The societies which fielded the armies dictated the character of their military formations, whether they were American or Crown Forces. During the war the American army transformed into an increasingly professional fighting force; a national army composed of individual state formations. This structure contained inherent tensions, principal among them state authority vs. centralized government.  Archeological investigations at Revolutionary War sites illustrate these tensions, and point to the underlying social structure that created the armies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Bring the Boys Back Home: War, Conflict, and Commemoration   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2013

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 687