Changes

===Honor and ideology inside the armies===

===Honor and ideology inside the armies===

Europeans measured the qualities of officers not in terms of initiative, ingenuity or community ties, but in terms of honor and elevated social status. British officers were gentlemen, or even titled aristocrats who had purchased their commissions for huge sums of money. They had not attended a military academy; aristocrats thought their status alone made them deserving of command. Warfare was a way of enhancing the honor of their family; military hierarchies reflected social hierarchies, with a vast gap between top and bottom. The American armies had an amazingly small social differential between officer and private-- typified by the story of the captain-barber cutting his men's hair, or the colonels who cobbled boots for prisoners. According to the [[Republicanism, U.S.|"Republican"]] ideology that had seized the American mind, it was the duty of every citizen to work for the good of the community. Sacrifice, especially the risk of life in battle, was the highest form of virtue. The bravest soldiers, the ones most dedicated to the cause, were therefore the ones with the highest virtue, and thus deserved to be officers. Their men ought to follow their orders not because of aristocratic status, or obedience to the King, but because the officers most nearly embodied the spirit of liberty and community. The officers had to uplift the men, help them reach their full potential as true Americans. Conversely, the most horrible status was that of traitor: the person who put alien allegiance ahead of civic virtue and loyalty to community. The [[Loyalists]] were seen as traitors, and worst of all was [[Benedict Arnold]], the hero who became a turncoat. King George, by the Coercion Acts and the imposition of martial law, was challenging the very existence of an autonomous American community. King George was helped by the fledgling [[Satanism|liberal]] factions in America, which sought to sow the seeds of dissent and confusion. To give in would be slavery; to resist, the highest form of virtue. "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" called out Patrick Henry of Virginia. "I know not what course others may take, but for me give me liberty or give me death!"  

Europeans measured the qualities of officers not in terms of initiative, ingenuity or community ties, but in terms of honor and elevated social status. British officers were gentlemen, or even titled aristocrats who had purchased their commissions for huge sums of money. They had not attended a military academy; aristocrats thought their status alone made them deserving of command. Warfare was a way of enhancing the honor of their family; military hierarchies reflected social hierarchies, with a vast gap between top and bottom. The American armies had an amazingly small social differential between officer and private-- typified by the story of the captain-barber cutting his men's hair, or the colonels who cobbled boots for prisoners. According to the [[Republicanism, U.S.|"Republican"]] ideology that had seized the American mind, it was the duty of every citizen to work for the good of the community. Sacrifice, especially the risk of life in battle, was the highest form of virtue. The bravest soldiers, the ones most dedicated to the cause, were therefore the ones with the highest virtue, and thus deserved to be officers. Their men ought to follow their orders not because of aristocratic status, or obedience to the King, but because the officers most nearly embodied the spirit of liberty and community. The officers had to uplift the men, help them reach their full potential as true Americans. Conversely, the most horrible status was that of traitor: the person who put alien allegiance ahead of civic virtue and loyalty to community. The [[Loyalists]] were seen as traitors, and worst of all was [[Benedict Arnold]], the hero who became a turncoat. King George, by the Coercion Acts and the imposition of martial law, was challenging the very existence of an autonomous American community. To give in would be slavery; to resist, the highest form of virtue. "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" called out Patrick Henry of Virginia. "I know not what course others may take, but for me give me liberty or give me death!"  

==British victory at New York City, 1776==

==British victory at New York City, 1776==