This book, originally published in 1977 examines in detail the organisation, training, and personnel of the British Army during the eighteenth century, and explains how the government policies of containing the enemy and colonial conquest were achieved. It also illustrates how the Army survived the constant nervousness of Parliament in reducing its strength after each emergency had passed. There are specific chapters devoted to the strategies of Marlborough, Amherst and Howe and to tactics as displayed at the battles of Ramillies, Fontenoy, Camden and Guildford Court House.

Books and the British Army in the Age of the American Revolution

Examines the relationships between soldiers and their wives during the long eighteenth century in Britain, particularly focusing on the wives who stayed at home while their husbands went to war.

The image is indelible: densely packed lines of slow-moving Redcoats picked off by American sharpshooters. Now Matthew H. Spring reveals how British infantry in the American Revolutionary War really fought. This groundbreaking book offers a new analysis of the British Army during the “American rebellion” at both operational and tactical levels. Presenting fresh insights into the speed of British tactical movements, Spring discloses how the system for training the army prior to 1775 was overhauled and adapted to the peculiar conditions confronting it in North America. First scrutinizing such operational problems as logistics, manpower shortages, and poor intelligence, Spring then focuses on battlefield tactics to examine how troops marched to the battlefield, deployed, advanced, and fought. In particular, he documents the use of turning movements, the loosening of formations, and a reliance on bayonet-oriented shock tactics, and he also highlights the army’s ability to tailor its tactical methods to local conditions. Written with flair and a wealth of details that will engage scholars and history enthusiasts alike, With Zeal and with Bayonets Only offers a thorough reinterpretation of how the British Army’s North American campaign progressed and invites serious reassessment of most of its battles.

Investigates the contract sector of the British Army during the long eighteenth century. This book argues that this group of financiers, private merchants, businessmen and farmers represented a vital interest group which was at the nexus of the fiscal-military structure. It draws on papers from the War Office, the Treasury and the Audit Office.

"Mob violence and crime were recurring features of eighteenth-century English life. Food prices, turnpikes, elections, gin, Jews, Methodists, executions, fairs, poor theatrical performances--all were capable of producing riots which astonished foreigners and seriously alarmed the authorities. Social historians two generations ago included the phenomenon in their works without much analysis, as part of the rich variety of Georgian life. In more recent times valuable work has been done on the composition of mobs and the causes of disorder. This book is concerned with the task of suppression rather than with the causes of riots, a task which, in an age of only rudimentary policing, had to fall largely on the army"--Jacket, p. [2].

An examination of the lifecycle of soldiers, including enlistment, experiences of military life, the soldier's place in society and in politics, and military identity, memory and representation.