American/European Training Manuals in the Era of the American Revolution. Part I

by Gustav Person1st Virginia Regiment

“…I am no advocate for blindly following the maxims of European policy.”

In December 1777, General Nathaniel Greene sum- marized his attitude to a council of war about using European training/drill manuals, rather than relying on practical experience.1 Yet, before and during the War of Independence, Americans largely relied on those European manuals, or American reprints, that could be used to train their militia and fledgling Continental forces. This article will examine those British and American training manuals. An examination of French and Ger- man manuals will be deferred for a further Part II.

In the 18th and early 19th Centuries, the terms drill and tactics were synonymous. Period manuals usually also included regulations for discipline, encampments, marches and the like. Because of language and cultural similarities, Americans relied most frequently on British manuals. Even a cursory look at the enclosed Bibliography would indicate that a wide range of these manuals were available, some extending to the turn of the 18th Century.

The two most important manuals, early in the 18th Century, repeated the best aspects of the Duke of Marl- borough’s army: Humphrey Bland’s A Treatise of Military Discipline in 1727, and Richard Kane’s Campaigns of King William and Queen Anne in 1745. Under the Duke of Cumberland and Field Marshal Ligonier, the British came under the influence of Prussia and Frederick the Great. The Prussian drill manual of 1757 was further expanded in 1759 (see Part II).

That regulation led to the publication of Adjutant General Edward Harvey’s The Manual Exercise, as ordered by His Majesty in 1764. The “64” remained the standard British drill manual until replaced by David Dundas’ work in 1795. Harvey’s 1764 Exercise became the paramount manual for American officers from 1766 until 1777. Nineteen imprints appeared in cities stretching from Boston to Williamsburg. Notably in 1774, Virginia, North Carolina and Connecticut officially adopted it for their militia and Continentals. Washington owned six copies of the “64.” British writ- ers also produced two other drill manuals with some appeal during this period: Campbell Dalrymple’s A Military Essay in 1761, and William Windham’s and George Townsend’s Norfolk Discipline, a simplified volume published in 1759 for the use of the militia. 2

Two other Englishmen authored widely-read
volumes in the 1760s and 1770s. In 1768, a collection of miscellaneous orders and notes were prepared by Major General James Wolfe, mostly while a regimental com- mander, which appeared posthumously under the title, Instruction to Young Officers. However, it contained no systematic theory. William Young was a prolific writer
of volumes dealing with drill, fortifications and outpost duty. In 1771, Young’s work appeared as Manoeuvres, or practical observations on the Art of War.3

Then, about 1768, there was a general shift in the New England area to a simplified military system that had been prepared for the militia of the county of Norfolk in England in 1759. Timothy Pickering, a militia colonel, further simplified the “Norfolk Discipline,” in An Easy Plan of Discipline for a Militia which he published in his home city of Salem, Massachusetts at the outbreak
of the Revolution in July 1775. Pickering’s system was essentially the Norfolk plan, but he reduced it to its bare essentials, and with every step carefully spelled out. It was adopted by a resolution of the Council and House of Representatives of Massachusetts Bay on 1 May 1776. Washington’s copy was always well-thumbed. He de- scribed Pickering as “…a great military genius cultivated by an industrious attention to the study of war.” Picker- ing later went on to serve as the adjutant general and quartermaster general of the Continental Army.4

Drill manuals constituted the largest category of published imports and imprints in the early 1770s. The popularity of Bland’s Treatise at the beginning of the opening phase of the French and Indian War had already extended to America, where a dozen editions appeared between 1743 and 1759. In 1776, Dalrymple’s Military Essay, and the Earl of Cavan’s minor work, A New System of Military Discipline, all appeared to great inter- est. Washington himself owned copies of Bland, Cavan, Windham’s Norfolk Discipline, and Young’s Manoeuvres. Both Massachusetts and later Connecticut adopted Windham’s manual for official militia use.

In 1776 in Philadelphia, Thomas Simes published The Military Guide for Young Officers, which was a reprint of an English edition. This work was in two volumes; the second a military dictionary. The first volume was a military scrap book containing many quotations from Bland and the French Comte de Saxe. This work was popular in America. When von Steuben later arrived at Valley Forge, he found only two books in general circulation, those of Bland and de Saxe.5

The Continental Line, Inc. – The Continental Soldier – Spring 2010

Also in 1776, Lewis Nicola published his Treatise of military exercise, calculated for the use of the Americans, and Thomas Davis, adjutant of the 1st Virginia Regiment, brought out a brief handbook, A Treatise on the military duty. Neither work enjoyed the readership of Pickering’s work.6

With so many manuals available, the arrival of Baron Frederich von Steuben during the Winter of 1778 at Valley Forge was a godsend. At about the same time that Washington directed army officers to expand their professional horizons, he moved to establish a standard system of “discipline, maneuvers, evolutions [and] regulations for guards” which every unit would follow; an important development to improve battlefield performance.7

Steuben later wrote Benjamin Franklin that …”circumstances… obliged me to deviate from the Principles ad- opted in thee European Armies, …Young as we are, we already have our Prejudices as the most ancient Nations, [and] the prepossession in favor of the British service has obliged me to comply with many Things, which are against my Principles.” Steuben’s genius created an entirely new system in which he borrowed from British, Prussian and American practices. The drill emphasized a single manual of arms, improved execution, new techniques of marching and the use of the bayonet.

A column of fours replaced single-file marching to produce more compact formations and better deployments on battlefields. The standard pace became the Prussian 75 two-foot steps per minute, not the British standard of 60. Officers, not non-commissioned officers, now had the responsibility for drilling the soldiers.8

Shortly after the close of the campaign of 1778, Steuben took his staff to Philadelphia and was soon hard at work on his new manual, later commonly known as “The Blue Book” because of its binding. While his staff translated and copied, Steuben engaged Captain M. Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the future designer of the new nation’s capital, to engrave the plates and diagrams to accompany the text.

Once the manuscript was completed, Steuben for- warded it to Washington. With his full support, a copy of the new Regulations was forwarded to Congress which greeted the work with enthusiasm, and adopted the manual on 29 March 1779 for the use of the entire army. After some initial printing delays, copies of the manual were soon in the hands of the troops. Washington’s personal copy is now in the possession of
the Boston Athenaeum. During the war years at least six editions were published. The Regulations passed through many later printings and compilations, and it was to remain the

Bibliography

Anon. Rules, maxims, and observations, for the govern- ment, conduct, and discipline of an army. By a general officer. Norwich: John Trumball, [1777].

Anon. The Gentleman’s compleat military dictionary, containing the military art,… Boston: Green and Russell 1759.

Blakeney, William. The New Manual exercise, by General Blakeney. To which is added, The Evolutions of the Foot, by General Bland. New York: James Parker, 1746; Philadelphia: B. Franklin, 1746 and 1747; New York: J. Parker and W. Weyman 1754 and 1756.

Bland, Humphrey. A Treatise of Military Discipline…. Boston: D. Henchman, 1743, 1744, 1747 and 1755; New York: Henry de Forest, 1754; New York: Hugh Gaine, 1759.

Brattle, William. Sundry Rules and Regulations for draw- ing up a Regiment, &. Boston: N.P., 1733.

Breton, William. Militia Discipline. The words
of command, and directions for exercising….
Boston: D Henchman, 1733; New York: William Brad- ford, 1738.

Dalrymple, Campbell. Extracts from a military essay…. Philadelphia: Humphreys, Bell and Aitken, 1776.

Davis [Thomas]. A Treatise on the military duty. By Adjutant Davis. Williamsburg: John Pinkney, 1776.

Elton, Richard. The compleat body of the art military. Boston: Nicholas Boone, 1701; Boston: B. Green and J. Allen, 1702.

Fitzroy, James, Duke of Monmouth. An Abridgement of the English military discipline. Boston: Samuel Green, 1690.

Great Britain. A New Exercise to be observed by His Majesty’s troops on the establishment of Great Britain and Ireland. By His Majesty’s special command. New York: H. Gaine, 1757; New York: J. Parker and W. Weyman, 1757; Philadelphia: W. Dunlap, 1758.

Harvey, Edward. The New Manual and Platoon Exer- cise, as ordered by His Majesty in 1764. New York: W. Weyman, 1766; New York: Hugh Gaine, 1769, 1773, 1775 and 1777; New Haven: Thomas and Samuel Green, 1774; Boston: T and J. Fleet, 1774; Boston: Isaiah Thomas, 1774; Providence: John Carter, 1774; Newburyport: E. Lunt and H.W. Tingres, 1774, Nor- wich: Robertson and Trumball, 1775; Albany: A and J. Robertson, 1775; Baltimore: M. K. Goddard, 1775; Philadelphia: William and Thomas Bradford, 1775; Philadelphia: J. Humphreys, R. Bell and R. Aitken, 1776; Williamsburg: Alexander Purdie, 1775; Williamsburg: J. Dixon and W. Hunter, 1775; Wilming- ton: James Adams, 1775.

Hoyt, General Epaphras. A treatise on the military art. Brattleborough: Benjamin Sneed, 1777.

Johnson, Guy. Manual exercise, evolutions, manoeuvres… to be observed…by the militia of the province
of New York. Albany: Alexander and James
Robertson, 1772.

Lambert, Richard, Earl of Cavan. A New System of Military Discipline founded upon principle. By a General Officer. Philadelphia: R. Aitken, 1776.

Nicola Lewis. A Treatise of military exercise, calculated for the use of the Americans. Philadelphia: Styner and Cist, 1776.

Pickering, Timothy, Jr. An Easy plan of Discipline for a Militia. Salem: Samuel and Ebenezer
Hall, 1775.

Simes, Thomas. The Military Guide for Young Officers… Philadelphia: Humphreys, Bell and Aitken, 1776.

Steuben, Frederich von. Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States. Philadelphia: Styner and Cist, 1779; Philadelphia: Francis Bailey, 1779; Hartford: Hudson and Goodwin, 1779 and 1782; Philadelphia: Charles Cist, 1782; Hartford: Nathaniel Patten, 1783.

Stevenson, Roger. Military Instructions for officers detached in the field: containing a scheme for forming a corps of a partisan. Philadelphia: R. Aitken, 1775. Windham, William. A Plan of exercise for the militia of Massachusetts Bay; extracted from the Plan of discipline
of the Norfolk Militia. Boston: Richard Draper, 1768, 1771, 1772 and 1774; New London: Timothy Green, 1772; New Haven: T. and S. Green, 1772.

1 Worthington C. Ford, ed., Defenses of Philadelphia in 1777 (Brooklyn: Historical Printing Club, 1897), 248.

2 Robert Kenneth Wright, Jr., “Organization and Doctrine in the Continental Army, 1774 to 1784,” Ph.D. Diss., The College of William and Mary in Virginia, 1980, 218-19, 223.

3 Ibid., 219.

4 Joseph R. Riling, Baron von Steuben and his Regulations (Philadelphia, PA: Ray Riling Arms Book Co., 1966), 1-2; Harold L. Peterson, The Book of the Continental Soldier (Harrisburg, PA: The Stackpole Company, 1968), 19-20; Colonel John Womack Wright, Some Notes on the Continental Army, New Windsor Cantonment Publication No. 2 (Vails Gate, NY: Hope Farm Press, 1963), 3

5 Robert Wright, “Continental Army,” 222; John Wright, Notes on the Continental Army, 4.

6 Robert Wright, “Continental Army,” 224.

7 Ibid., 228.

8 Steuben to Franklin, 28 September 1779, Steuben Pa- pers, New York Historical Society; Robert K. Wright, Jr., The Continental Army (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 1989), 141.

9 Riling, Steuben and his Regulations, 9-19.

Wolfe, James. Instructions to Young Officers. London: 1757.

Young, William. Manoeuvres, or practical observations on the Art of War. 1771