Why was the American army so organized and strong during their first 50 years (1770-1816)?

Question

this is for a debate

Answer 1

Well...they weren't. The American Colonial ranks during those years were riddled with corruption, incompetence, and some generals like Benedict Arnold were outright traitors.

They were underfunded, underfed, underclothed, and in many cases poorly led.

But their morale was very high. They elected their own officers, rather than having them appointed, and most units were regional, so the men in the line knew each other, and each other's families.

Answer 2

We were not organized at all.

Between the end or the Revolution and the Creek Indian uprising, we had disbanded the Army and Navy except for one battery of artillery. Individual states had their own standards for militia and even had scirmished between states in the 1780s while the US was still under the Articles of the Confederation.

When the Creek indians attacked, the militia was called up to fight them. The militia ran leaving the active duty battery alone and they got slaughered since artillery without infantry support is very vulnerable. All officers and all but 33 were killed.

The 33 men then went back to, trained a new force, and got their cannons back.

After this incident, Congress decided a standing military was needed because militia and conscripts could not be relied upon without enough training.

Following this, we took advisors from several different countries and changed our organization constanly based on which country was providing the advisors... it was all very unorganized.

During the war of 1812, militias were called up to augment the active Army. If the US Army had relied upon a conscript only Army with no Active Duty Core, the British would have rolled over us before we could have done anything and almost did.

Answer 3

It was actually neither for a large part of that time. The American Army did not even exist until July 1776 when the Continental Congress appointed George Washington as a General and the first Continental Army units were not formed until January 1777 when some militia's were transferred from state control to federal. It lost as many battles as it won and the organization was mainly implemented by foreign, German kingdoms, Polish and French officers did most of the training. After the Revolutionary War it was practically disbanded. During the War of 1812 is was soundly defeated in every offense it tried, the capital was burned down, and lost every major battle with the exception of the battle of New Orleans in which over 90% of the troops, and the leadership, was state mlitia's (mainly the Tennesseans under Jackson), Cajun privateers/pirates and was fought after the Treaty of Ghent and war was officially over; news was slow in those days. If your debate is that the US Army was strong at that time you really have problem and that is reality and history say differently.

Answer 4

Myth: American army was organized and strong during its first 50 years.

Fact #1:Only fought England. Twice. War of 1812 we pretty much got our butts kicked and England was distracted by Napoleon Bonaparte. They Actually burned the White House.

fact #2: Only intervention of pirates under Jean Lafitte saved NewOrleans from British invasion in 1814.

Factoid #3) In 1846 the Territory of Oregon launched an "invasion" of canada to secure it's northern border ar 54 degrees 40 minutes and the canadians promptly kicked our asses all the way back to the 49th parallel.

About the only wars we won before WWI were against Mexico.

I would argue that the hypothesis is somewhat lacking in factual perception.

Answer 5

umm..they weren't. We had the crappiest navy ever and some of the soldiers almost rebelled against Washington because they weren't paid the correct amount...but after ww2 we were offically the strongest military in the world.

Answer 6

actually the American army was at it's best until it defeated the European colonial powers in the Peruvian highlands on July 1825 finally liberating America from European Colonialism. The great American libertators San Martin and Bolivar stamped their names to that military victory.

Answer 7

Americas will and the strong desire to remain a free country. that and there wasn't a lot of yellow belly freedom mooching libs in those days. The libs of those days had guts and knew what it would have to take to keep this nation free. most importantly patriotism, something not shown by the left anymore and those who call themselves libs.

Answer 8

Pride for our nation.