(military band playing) - [Host] Are we near the camp?

- [Historian] I think we're fortunate, indeed.

I think we have found a fairly substantial Continental Army regular force.

And it was a very rare occurrence in 1780 and '81 to find people settled for this, maybe a few days in one place, because the British and the Americans were playing a cat-and-mouse game, chasing each other all over North Carolina.

- This would not be the main force, Continental.

- No, this is probably an outpost force.

And since they are pretty settled here, they're worried about the enemy, but I don't think they're too close to the enemy.

They're probably a ways down the road.

- [Host] This wagon we've been following.

Is it just passing through the camp, or what is it?

- [Historian] No, it's part of the army structure.

It's a supply wagon, and this is another rare occurrence.

Those things were few and far between, because they had to travel from Baltimore and Philadelphia, 5-600 miles over the worst kind of roads and trying to handle six horses like that, just trying to keep them alive over that space of time.

And when the supplies arrived, they were, like supplies were all through history, sometimes you got shirts without trousers, sometimes you got shoes without socks, powder without flint so you couldn't fire your muskets, typical.

- [Host] This seems to be a tiny fortification that he passed through.

Why is it so small?

- [Historian] This is really an outpost to protect the camp, which is in the background.

It is built, however, according to the rules of warfare in that period.

There was a French defense minister by the name of Louvois under Louis the 14th who invented all these things that you see.

Now, they look crude, but they have fancy French names.

They're getting ready to move this Cheval De Frise for the troops.

And they're just spike sticks that you put in the road, to keep cavalry or infantry from getting through quickly.

And when you move over to the embankment here, it has little spikes sticks stuck in it that are called a Frise.

And then out front, we have the equivalent of 18th century barbed wire.

It's called an Abbatee, fancy names.

[Host] Yeah.

[Historian] And of course, the whole idea is to take a shot at the enemy if he comes close, warn the camp, get out of there and just impede him for a few moments.

So you can prepare for their attack.

- [Host] Is that a farmhouse at the back there?

- [Historian] Yes and I think - Would that be headquarters?

- [Historian] It might be the commander's headquarters.

- [Host] We should look in on it.

- [Historian] Yes.

- [Host] All right this is the farm house, where's the farmer likely to be at this point?

- [Historian] The farmer could very well be upstairs renting his house to the commander in chief, but thing is you have to realize is that only about a third, according to most estimates, a third of the Americans really supported the rebellion at any one time.

So this guy might've been a local Tory, somebody supporting the king, king George, and when the Continental Army came to town, he's gone, he's out the road and it's fairly substantial house, but you can see it's a simple log structure and it might be the only house for miles.

So they took it over because it might be the only structure around for miles.

- [Host] Yeah, there are a lot of men here apparently, and they've done a certain amount of damage.

Things look sort of trampled down, but I noticed that they haven't taken the fence and burned it up, for example, are they taking good care of the place, you think?

- [Historian] This is a good indication of the discipline I think that exists in the army.

At the beginning of the revolution, about six years before this time, they would have probably burned the house down before very long and cleared everything out.

But this army was very well disciplined by this time.

And it was disciplined enough so that if anybody stole one of those fence rails over there, he might very well be flogged.

Of course, fence rails were an obvious source of firewood.

So you might want to have that, but they were well-disciplined.

So they didn't steal those kind of things.

- [Host] Well is the commander inside you think?

- [Historian] Oh I'm sure he is.

He's probably in enjoying breakfast.

- [Host] Now he's in absolute command of this entire unit.

- [Historian] Yes, he's also really hanging out here.

He is in charge of this whole force in charge of keeping it together and also in charge of making it into a potent fighting force.

But he also has absolute authority.

He is capable of hanging somebody up by his fingernails if he wants to, he can do anything he wants.

He is the absolute power here.

(horse galloping) - [Host] Oh this is the cavalry, huh?

- [Historian] Yes, he's not really a cavalryman, he's a dragoon.

That's just a fancy name for a cavalryman.

But technically a dragoon was a mounted infantry, but had a little more to deal with in terms of weapons than the average cavalryman.

Cavalry was not a particularly important force in American wars because of the wilderness.

- [Commander] I noticed on the ground rounds last night that the pickets were terribly laxed.

You must keep on it.

- [Captain] No reply.

- [Dragoon] Yes sir.

- [Captain] Frenchies again.

- [Commander] Oh come, come Captain.

You love their muskets.

Ah, I have the pleasure to inform you that the Chevalier De Villiers, if you'll excuse my French, shall have arrived at your camp this afternoon.

He wishes to see an American regimen and I wish to show him the best and of course, signed general (indistinct).

And of course, we shall show him the best.

(officers talking over each other) Relax, have your breakfast.

Thank you Lieutenant, if you'll put that in the letter post.

- [Historian] It looks as if they're going to be preparing for an important visitor.

- [Host] Are these troops serving directly under General Washington?

- No, these troops are in North Carolina and General Washington sent them down specifically to meet a threat.

They were the best troops, the best disciplined troops in his army.

And they were the indication of how far the American army had come in a few years.

In 1775, when General Washington arrived in Boston, he found a mob.

He didn't find an army they were a bunch of farmers who came out for a good time.

And when they got tired they went home.

Well he managed to keep something going for a couple of years, but until he had the European discipline, that was necessary and the Europeans were good at it because they'd been doing it for centuries, until they had that they weren't really able to, fight the British on their own terms.

What really made the difference probably was the influence of some foreign officers trained in that tradition.

One of which was Baron Von Steuben, who should get a lot of credit.

I mean, he was only a captain of the Prussian army, but he came over with a fancy uniform on, and was gonna make a big reputation for himself.

The lucky thing was that he had the ability to go along with it.

And during that really difficult winter of Valley Forge, he arrived and really turned the American army around and gave it the European discipline it needed so that these kinds of troops could exist a couple of years later.

- [Host] Why was the message brought to this particular tent?

- This tent is the focal point of the entire camp.

This is the point at which all the information is disseminated throughout the camp.

All the things that had to be told to the rest of the soldiers.

And you can see here it is the focal point because the colors are here.

The symbol of the regiment.

- [Host] This guard we have here.

- This is one of the reasons why this exists.

It's the point at which the guard, which surrounds the entire camp.

All the pickets that go out is mounted.

So they can go out.

And these men are just like a guard any time, even today.

The guard is on a couple of hours off several hours, but they're always completely equipped in uniform so that they can go out and meet the enemy.

And they're the first ones who actually go out and fight in case there's an emergency.

- [Host] And there's always a danger at this stage of the game.

- [Historian] Yes, we probably not too far from the British.

So you can see the uniforms they're wearing.

Of course, they're in the best of European tradition at this time (indistinct).

(snare drums playing) - [Host] This is like a bugle call, I guess.

- Yes, exactly, it's just the 18th century equivalent of a bugle call.

The drum was found to be an excellent way to disseminate information because it carries over a long distance.

And the non-commissioned officers heard that call and knew they were supposed to come to the adjutants tent.

- Why is the drummer dressed in a red coat?

- Well, these drums of course were used in battle too.

And they had to communicate long distances in the days before they had walkie talkies.

And they have, according to the European tradition, the opposite color of the infantry.

In this case, General Washington prescribed blue with red facings for the coats of this infantry, red with blue facings- - So they could find him when they needed.

- Yeah, you can see 'em, you look down the line, you see that red coat.

- [Host] So the private had most of his day controlled by drum calls like this.

Did he have much idle time, did he loaf around a little bit.

- [Historian] you know, as well as I do, the Devil is always around someplace when there are idle hands.

- [Host] Idle hands are the Devil's workshop.

- These guys were kept as busy as possible.

And during a campaign season, they might be marching 20, 25 miles a day.

And when they stopped for the night here they are drilling.

Can you imagine for a couple of hours with a 10 pound weapon.

And the reason they drilled is because the discipline involved in firing this weapon is all important.

There's 14 maneuvers involved in firing this thing.

And it's a system that was in use in armies all over the world for about 200 years.

It's a flintlock system.

The flint strikes the steel on the outside, causes a discharge on the outside of the barrel, which goes through the inside, as long as you're not in the rain, it'll go off, and sets off the charge on the inside.

And it involves these 14 different maneuvers that hopefully took about 15 seconds if a soldier was really proficient.

And that's all he did all the time was learn how to fire that musket.

- Did he dismantle it and was able to take it apart the way they do these days?

- These are not the days in the 18th century, of field stripping blindfolded.

If he touched the inside of his musket without instructions, he could be flogged.

So he spent a lot of his time burnishing the outside so it looked really nice, but God only knows what the inside looked like, because he was only concerned about that black powder felling that he got from firing.

- [Host] You had to clean it a lot.

- [Historian] Yes.

A lot of the time.

- A pretty self-sufficient soldier, I would guess.

- [Historian] Very much so.

I think one thing that we have to understand is these were volunteers, but they were probably ignorant volunteers.

They were at the low end of the scale, you know.

You see a recruiting party comes through and you go, hey, this looks like fun.

But when you get out there, it doesn't appear to be quite as fun as it did originally.

One of the indications is the fact that six to eight men slept in these tents, can you imagine that?

And this poor soldier had to keep his body and soul together, just by sitting there and trying to patch his clothes.

And a lot of times they really didn't get the clothes they needed and the stories about them not having shoes and just wearing shirts in freezing rain are true.

They really are true.

So they had a really rough time.

- [Host] And yet there was some leisure time activity.

These guys seem to be gambling.

- [Historian] I think they might be in trouble.

- [Host] Is there punishment involved there?

- [Historian] A punishment is definitely involved.

I think the commanding officer would not look very kindly on gambling.

The commanding officer with his power of life and death had ways of dealing with wrongdoers in the camp.

He could apply physical punishment, flogging, or even in some cases execution for a major offense, but he also had a way of dealing with a minor offense, a lack of dignity for the malefactor.

And also at the same time, a little amusement for the game.

- [Host] Now could this sort of thing happen to an Officer?

- [Historian] No way, no way.

There's a difference in class here that we don't really totally understand in the 20th century.

They would court Marshall an officer among his peers and have nothing to do whatsoever with the enlisted man.

We might take a look at some of the other illustrations of the difference in class.

- [Host] This tent, which I gather to be an officer's tent, looks like a circus tent.

- [Historian] I know, can you imagine two officers in a tent like this.

Six to eight enlisted men in that little tiny tent that we just looked at.

And see some other examples of the difference in class; Being shaved by an enlisted man; Reading a newspaper, old Private Yankee Doodle was lucky if he could sign his name and most of them couldn't.

- [Host] Is that a spear in the back?

- [Historian] Well, it was called a Spontoon.

It was a French term, a hang over from the middle ages.

It was a badge of rank among the officers.

Washington found that if his officers were carrying firearms they didn't pay attention to what they were supposed to be doing, which is taking care of the men.

They were playing with their firearms.

So he took those away from 'em and gave them their Spontoons.

And they were a badge of rank.

And you could see them very easily when the officer was in ranks, but also they could be used as a weapon in an emergency, as you can see, it's a spear really.

- Well the officers made every effort to live as fine the life as they could live under the circumstance.

- It's again, a matter of class, you know, you're dealing with the same situation that the enlisted men are dealing with, but you're doing it with a little you know, a lttle attempt to keep your social position in order.

(chuckles) You can see the officer's mess with red velvet.

They got together twice a day for the breakfast and the dinner meal and discuss their problems and had as good a meal as they could under the circumstances.

Now we're back at the rear of the camp and the supplier here.

- [Host] I noticed some of the men working here have leather aprons on, are they a part of the uniform?

- [Historian] You might think these guys are just regular grunts.

They're wearing leather aprons first to protect themselves from the wood, but this is, believe it or not elite corps, a group called the sappers and miners in the revolution and later became the Army Corps Of Engineers.

- [Host] Is this all they do, is chop wood?

- [Historian] Well this is one of the more mundane things that they did.

They also laid out the camp, when the army arrived, they would go ahead of the army and cut through a woods if they got in the way.

And they were the real crazies in battle, they were the ones who went ahead of the army and actually would attack fortifications and cut them away so that the army could get through, - [Host] Ooh.

Hey this is the wagon we saw when we first entered the camp.

- [Historian] Yes, and I think they have probably one of the most important type of supplies of all they have weapons arriving.

And most of the weapons they got were from foreign sources like France.

And if they ever broke a weapon like this, they couldn't fix it in the field.

So they'd stick it right back in the box and send it back up with the supply wagon.

- [Host] What might be in the barrel that they're unloading?

- [Historian] I think probably there would be clothing, and like that, most likely hats or uniform coat, something like that.

- [Host] Hey, they're butchering, they had fresh meat?

- [Historian] Yes, about the only thing that they had fresh that's because they could take a cow and herd 'em along with the army then kill 'em the day that they actually ate the meat and they would send it back to camp and send the meat back and a butcher would actually cut it up.

And they had a greater tolerance to what we would consider spoiled meat than we do.

They could actually eat a piece of meat like that several hours after it was butchered and survive it.

- Women in the army camp?

- According to 18th century custom, the enlisted men were allowed to have their wives and their families and camp with them.

But you know what the life of the enlisted man was like.

So it was no bed of roses for the ladies either.

They were flogged along with the men and they were drummed out of camp if they didn't perform the functions that they were supposed to perform, being hired by the army, which is basically cooking the food for the men when they were in camp.

- [Host] So they were subject to discipline the same way, the enlisted men were.

- Exactly, can you imagine they were flogged.

And the drum major was in charge of flogging.

And he was the one who also herded the camp followers on the March.

Cause they were always in a big cluster behind the army.

- This meal that they're cooking looks a little bit like stew.

What's in there?

- Have you ever taken everything that you can get your hands on and thrown it in a pot?

- That's it huh?

- [Historian] That's what you're looking at right there.

- [Host] Where did they get all this?

- [Historian] Well, they were actually issued a ration.

They had a special ration that they were supposed to get.

Now, they didn't always get it.

And of course, when they did get it, it wasn't any great shakes, as you can imagine, this is basically what a man might get for a couple of days.

You have fresh meat, but that's the only fresh thing available.

The rest of it's the kind of stuff that they can store for long periods of time and carry over long distances.

- [Host] Dry rice and bread.

- [Historian] Bread when they could get it, and soap.

- [Host] Oh I see, that's issued too.

- The liquid is something that was a custom in most armies up until the 19th century.

And that's something to help the enlisted men cope.

You give them a little bit of rum every day.

- [Host] The rum ration.

- It doesn't get 'em drunk, but it, it helps a little bit, you know, it makes you warm inside, makes you feel a little bit better.

- Makes it a little easier.

Makes it all a little easy.

It's a laundry operating here, what's this?

- [Historian] That's another function of the camp followers.

They were supposed to, also for a fee, wash the clothes of the enlisted men if they were available.

- [Host] Yeah, that's handy.

These men are still up here.

How long would they leave someone.

In that kind of a position?

- [Historian] So that they won't forget what they did.

You might leave them up there a whole day.

If you can imagine sitting up there for an entire day.

- I can't imagine being there a day without, sooner or later, getting quite ill.

I mean, in some manner, would they have been treated?

- [Historian] Well, as you might know, our medical science in the 18th century was not that very far up the scale.

So they quite often hurt very badly before they went to see the surgeon.

(knocking) - [Dentist] Have to pull it out.

- [Historian] You noticed the surgical instruments are right out in the open.

- [Dentist] Drink some of this, it'll ease the pain.

Drink hearty now, more.

Hold his jaw.

Steady, steady.

(patient moans) - I'd think twice before I went to that doctor, I think.

- Not that tooth pulling is any fun, but that's the minor leagues compared to what he could really do to people.

You know, they had ways of dealing with disorders of the body.

Bleeding of course, was a very popular custom that goes back to ancient times.

That's where they open you up and let out a pint or two of blood just to make sure that all the humors get together.

The other possibility is a prerogative where they induce vomiting.

And that also of course helps the bodily humors, but there were other problems too.

We haven't even discussed the fact that these soldiers faced wounds on the battlefield and artillery certainly was a great cause of many of the wounds These standing guns could cause a lot of havoc in a battle.

And they were close to infantry support weapons.

They were designed to be fired at close range with lots of balls called grape or canister.

And they were anti-personnel weapons.

Used right in the line of battle.

Notice all the men who were carrying them in and the men on the right.

The men who were carrying them in are more expendable than the horse flesh that might've carried them over the terrain.

Horses were expensive and hard to get.

They have left the piece, all they are, are just infantry men who sat attached to the artillery.

And now we have the actual gunners who are the professionals who know how to handle these things.

They're actually going in to fight.

- [Host] So the men we saw carry them in.

Were really pack animals in a way, serving in the horses stead.

- [Historian] Yes exactly.

- [Host] Wow.

What kind of a range is involved here?

[Historian] You could physically fire a three pound ball.

These are called three pounders, probably close to a mile, but they're only really as effective as far as you can see.

So they used them in close infantry support and they fired them at the ranks of infantry coming towards them at 100 yards, 200 yards.

And when they learn how to use these things, they learned exactly how to use them as an infantryman learned to use his musket.

It's automatic, they use the discipline.

They can fire these guns very, very quickly in battle.

- [Cannon Loader] Hand them cartridge, charge with cartridge, ram down cartridge.

Pick!

Prime!

Fire.

- [Historian] They're beating assembly, looks like they're getting ready for the review, the French officer's probably arrived.

- [Host] This is the big demonstration, right?

- [Historian] Yes, looks like the whole battalion is coming down now.

See, everyone coming out from the camp, and forming into line, for an actual formal review just like they've been doing in military units since forever.

- [Host] So he'll troop the line (indistinct).

- [Historian] Yes.

(speaks faintly) He'll come down the line, and he'll go to sleep.

If you look on the right end of the line, you can see the sappers and miners and then further down and the music and then the infantry and in the center of the regiment, you can actually see the colors.

Which of course is the guide on, the point at which everybody looks when they want to keep their dress in battle.

Of course in battle as long as they carried those flags, the greatest disgrace was to lose a flag.

You can the commanding officer out there with the French officer and Major Groom following behind just as an escort.

I think they're going to probably get ready for an attacking demonstration for the French officer so that he can see how really good they are.

- [Host] This is another version of a parade formation of some kind?

- [Historian] No, no, this is the real honest to goodness thing.

This is what they would do in battle.

In other words, what they're doing here is showing this visitor that they have a lot of prowess in regular battle tactics.

It looks like parade formation.

I mean, they actually form these kinds of lines when they were going against the enemy?

- [Historian] They did this for 200 years in European and American armies all the way up until the First World War.

And you have to understand that this is the most important thing about 18th century linear tactics.

That weapons dictated the way in which they fired.

And you could see them actually unfolding.

They're displaying the line of battle so that they can bring all their firepower to bear.

And the officer is not firing all his muskets at once because he wants to have some loaded so that he can fire at the enemy with muskets when he needs them.

But he could have everyone fire at once.

And that's of course basically turns that line into a giant shotgun.

And since those weapons are so inaccurate, if you can imagine a musket can't even hit a man very easily at 60 yards, they needed to fire all of them at once to actually hit something on the other side.

- [Host] We might imagine that there in a battle situation would be another line of this sort of across the field and they would be standing in a line firing at each other.

- [Historian] Exactly, it sounds crazy, but there really weren't all that many casualties because of the inaccuracy of the weapons, the most important thing about these weapons is the fact that they are just really fancy spears, the most important thing in a battle in the 18th century was to press on the bayonet attack.

So these men they're actually running through several evolutions here, but in the end they probably will attack with a bayonet charge.

And drive the enemy, the imaginary enemy, off the field.

You can see here now, they're playing with larger groups.

The group on the right of the colors, called a division, and then the group on the left of the colors, another division, more firepower.

- [Host] So the commander manipulates the number of people that fire, in what order?

- [Historian] Yes, exactly.

And he can use any increment he wants.

A platoon, a division or the whole battalion.

And you can see right in the face of the enemy, they'll about face and march away and keep their line.

That's the most important thing of all.

- [Host] Maintaining the formation.

Yes...that's the all important thing, because if you lose your formation, that's the end of the battle.

That's all she wrote because the enemy would press on, would begin a charge, drive you off the field and they'll bring in the Cavalry.

The whole thing is designed as gamesmanship really.

It's designed to impress your enemy, with how incredible you are at this sort of thing.

- [Host] How fearless.

- [Historian] Yes, exactly, and of course, it's all peer pressure and the men have been doing it forever in battle.

It's all designed to keep discipline so that nobody would break.

Now we have just an incredibly amount of firepower.

If the enemy hasn't broken yet, I'm sure he's probably getting ready to, they will get ready.

And they will, press home the bayonet charge.

In fact they're getting down to charge bayonet now, and the enemy is defeated.

- What'd you think?

- I think it's flawless.

I really do - Excellent, thank you.

- Very well done.

- [Host] It would seem the Chevalier approves of what he saw today.

- [Historian] I think it was very important to these Americans that they impress the French officer.

And I think they probably did because it was a very good military display.

- [Host] It was a very impressive demonstration and they need his approval in this situation.

- Yes, the French were very important allies.

- And the course of the revolutionary war, the American fighting forces became capable of conventional procedures.

As far as European warfare was concerned, they became a professional army, didn't they?

- You might say that the American soldier during the revolution really did grow up into a first-class fighting man.

I think the one man that you have to give credit to though that's marching in the background like he always does is the private soldier, the enlisted man, Private Yankee Doodle.

Throughout American history, the GI Joe's have always been in the background.

And I think the private soldier of the revolution is more in the background than most because he was illiterate.

He really didn't leave behind impressions of what he felt to a very great degree.

He largely just left behind the artifacts of his existence, the tools of his trade.

- Well, where will he go tomorrow?

- [Historian] Well, it's just like a circus that has come to town and the tents will go down.

The equipment that we put in the wagons and on the backs of the soldiers, and he'll probably March 25 miles tomorrow and put up camp someplace else and start drilling all over again.

There's gonna be many more months of hardship, many more months of endurance, fighting this war that went on for so long, but the ultimate success at Yorktown, the American defeat of the British, what made the British realize that to try to stop this rebellion was futile.

(marching band plays) - [Narrator] Pre-recorded on location by the Maryland center for public broadcasting.