page_title: British Army during the American Revolutionary War
section_title: Structure and recruitment
hierarchical_section_title: British Army during the American Revolutionary War / Structure and recruitment
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Jeffrey Amherst (1717-1797), British general
context_page_description: The British Army during the American Revolutionary War served for eight years in campaigns fought around the globe. Defeat at the Siege of Yorktown to a combined Franco-US force ultimately led to the loss of the Thirteen Colonies in eastern North America, and the concluding Treaty of Paris deprived Britain of many of the gains achieved in the Seven Years' War. However several victories elsewhere meant that much of the British Empire remained intact.
  In 1775 the British Army was a volunteer force. The army had suffered from lack of peacetime spending and ineffective recruitment in the decade since the Seven Years' War, circumstances which had left it in a dilapidated state at the outbreak of war in North America. To offset this the British government quickly hired contingents of German auxiliaries alongside the regular army units in campaigns from 1776. Limited army impressment was also introduced in England and Scotland to bolster recruitment in 1778, however the practice proved too unpopular and was proscribed again in 1780.
context_section_description: Britain had incurred a large national debt fighting the Seven Years' War, during which the armies' establishment strength had been increased to an unprecedented size. With the ascension of peace in 1763 the army was dramatically reduced to a peacetime home establishment of just over 11,000 men, with a further 10,000 for the Irish establishment and 10,000 for the colonies. This meant 20 regiments of infantry totaling just over 11,000 men were stationed in Great Britain, 21 regiments were stationed in Ireland, 18 regiments were stationed in the Americas, and 7 regiments stationed in Gibraltar. Alongside this the army could call on 16 regiments of the cavalry, a total of 6,869 men and 2,712 men in the artillery. This gave a theoretical strength of just over 45,000 men exclusive of the artillery. The British government deemed this troop strength to be inadequate to prosecute an insurrection in the Americas, as well as deal with defence of the rest of its territories, so treaties with German states (mainly Hesse-Kassel and Brunswick) were negotiated for a further 18,000 men (half of which were stationed in garrisons to release regular British units from other theaters). This measure brought the Army’s total establishment strength to around 55,000 men.
  After the losses at the Battles of Saratoga and the outbreak of hostilities with France and Spain, the existing voluntary enlistment measures were judged to be insufficient. Between 1775 and 1781, the regular army increased from 48,000 to 121,000. In 1778 the army adopted some non traditional recruiting measures to further augment its strength, a system of private subscription was established, whereby some 12 new regiments totaling 15,000 men were raised by individual towns and nobles. In the same year the government passed the first of two recruiting acts which allowed a limited form of impressment in parts of England and Scotland under strict conditions, however the measure proved unpopular and both acts were repealed in May 1780,  permanently discontinuing impressment in the army. The recruiting acts of 1778 and 1779 also provided greater incentives for voluntarily joining the regular army, including a bounty of £3 and the entitlement to discharge after three years unless the nation remained at war. Thousands of volunteer militia battalions were raised for home defense in Ireland and England, and some of the most competent of these were embodied to the regular army. The British Government took a further step by releasing criminals and debtors from prison on the condition they joined the army. Three entire regiments were raised from this early release program.
  In Nov 1778 the establishment was set at 121,000 men, of whom 24,000 were foreigners, along with 40,000 embodied militia. This was raised the next year to 104,000 men on the British establishment, 23,000 on the Irish establishment, 25,000 foreigners (the “Hessians”), and 42,000 embodied militia, for a total force of about 194,000 men.
  Although a large portion of the rank and file were lower class and the officers upper class, the army recruited from a variety of social backgrounds, both among the regular and officer ranks. According to Reid, the Georgian army through necessity drew its officers from a far wider base than its later Victorian counterpart and was much more open to promotion from the ranks. Officers were required to be literate, but there was no formal requirement on the level of education or their social standing, and most regimental officers did not come from the landed gentry, but from middle class private individuals in search of a career. Although the system of sale of commissions officially governed the selection and promotion of officers, in practice the system was considerably relaxed during wartime, with far more stringent requirements placed on promotion. Many British officers were professional soldiers rather than wealthy dilettantes and showed themselves ready to discard their drill manuals and use innovative methods and tactics.
caption: Field Marshal Jeffery Amherst served as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces from 1778-1782.
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