Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
Bored troops will always get in or cause trouble...
"Standing" armies of that time were often half-time armies. The soldiers were on leave during crop harvest to work, reducing the fiscal cost and increasing critical seasonal manpower supply. The ratio of civilians to active army personnel was furthermore quite high. The townsfolk and the people living close to forts were probably the only ones who got their life affected by the military to a noticeable degree (and quite often advantageously so, for the soldiers' budget did overwhelmingly not come from taxation in the vicinity).


I'm not exactly a scholar of U.S. history, but I am under the impression that Americans probably see the redcoats of the 18th century a bit more critically than justified. There have been more than 200 years of propaganda at work, after all.

I only need to look at the reputation of German soldiers from WWI and how English propaganda shaped it to remember a historical example of how propaganda (especially by victors) can distort an army's reputation.