Considering a Cadre Augmented Army - RAND Corporation

-279- A Historical Analysis of Cadre
sponsorship for the first time. At that time, there were about 15,000 colonists ready to fight
in Boston. 16 Because most people expected that the armed uprising would force Britain to
settle the grievances, the colonists were only enlisted through December of 1775. 17 Due to
these short enlistments, when the conflict dragged on into December, “(George)
Washington had to disband one army and create another in the presence of the enemy.” 18
This was the first of many times that General George Washington was forced to replace part
of his army in the midst of combat due to short enlistments. 19 These experiences frustrated
Washington who wrote that only a professional, regular army 20 would serve the wartime
needs of the United States. Washington wrote, “regular troops alone are equal to the
exigencies of modern war, as well for defence as for offence … No militia will ever acquire
the habits necessary to resist a regular force.” 21 Cadre proponents would emphasize
Washington’s frustration with the militia in the nineteenth century. 22 However, critics of
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16 Millis (1956), p. 29
17 Weigley (1984), p. 34. Government officials understood that longer enlistments were preferred but did not
think that they could be practically achieved. “John Adams estimated that in Massachusetts not over a regiment
‘… of the meanest, idlest, most intemperate and worthless …’ would have enlisted for the duration.”
[Kreidberg and Henry (1955)] Short enlistments were also a way to minimize costs. Since armies generally
rested in the wintertime in the Revolutionary War (except for the battle of Trenton), the government could
minimize costs by enlisting men for the spring through fall and not incur the cost of maintaining forces over
the winter when they provided no fighting capability. [Palmer (1941)]
18 Weigley (1984), p. 34
19 At the end of 1776 when the enlistments of soldiers who enlisted at the end of 1775: “General Washington
was once more compelled to discharge one army and rebuild another in face of the enemy.” [Millis (1956), p.
31]
20 The Regular Army is the equivalent of today’s AC force; it does not include the militia (now the National
Guard).
21 Weigley (1984), p. 74
22 In the Military Policy of the United States, Emory Upton’s twelfth lesson from the Revolutionary War was “that
Regular troops engaged for the war, are the only safe reliance of a government, and are in every point of view
the best and most economical.” [Upton (1904), p. 67] Upton quoted Washington extensively in arguing against
the militia. A famous Washington quote used by Upton spoke of the militia: “They come in … you cannot tell
how; go, you cannot tell when; and act, you cannot tell where; consume your provisions, exhaust your stores
and leave you at last at a critical moment.” [Ambrose (1964), p. 125]