Don Hagist

Though Don Hagist flirts with winding up in the weeds, you will get a very different take on the nature of the British army that confronted the political upheaval in London's North American possessions.

The basic point that Hagist wants to make is that because this was a volunteer force for most of the time period in question covered, and that most of those who served left no account of their self-justifications, so you really can't point to any one motivation. At one point impressment for show more the army was tried by the British government, and was almost immediately recognized as a huge mistake that was not repeated.

So if Hagist is not really attempting a group portrait of the typical British ranker, and he's not giving you a blow-by-blow of the course of the war (you should know that before reading this book), what are you really left with? Call this an account of the personnel-management side of the British Army, as Hagist takes you through the recruitment, training, the day-to-day of a soldier's life, how soldiers made bank, and so on and so forth. Hagist also devotes a whole chapter to the matter of looting and pillaging, which he sees as a major cause for alienation of folks who would have otherwise been Loyalists, or at least neutral.

In the end, I found this study well-worth my time. show less