This entry is a subentry of Veterans.
Because inadequate records were kept, the exact number of Americans who fought in the Continental army and in state militia units during the Revolutionary War (1775–83) is unknown. Most former members of the Continental army officer corps became ardent nationalists as a result of their military service and pressed to replace the Articles of Confederation with a new constitution. President George Washington placed a number of his former Continental army officers in executive positions in the new federal government.
Continental officers created the Society of the Cincinnati for themselves, but no national veterans' organizations emerged for the common soldiers. Many veterans of the Revolution continued to serve in the militia after 1783, and for numerous Americans the militia embodied the republican ideals of the citizen‐soldier. The heightened nationalism that emerged after the War of 1812 helped turn the aging and shrinking ranks of Revolutionary War veterans into symbols of civic virtue in the eyes of politicians and the public. In communities across the country, these gray‐haired ex‐soldiers often received honored places at the head of Fourth of July parades and other rituals honoring the Revolution and the Republic.
In 1818, responding to the public's growing esteem for the Revolutionary veteran, the U.S. Congress for the first time offered pensions to any veteran of the Continental army who had demonstrated financial need and had served for at least nine months. This differed from previous pensions offered only to officers and also to those soldiers permanently injured in battle. In 1832, Congress further liberalized these requirements and granted pensions to all living veterans, including militia members, regardless of financial need, if they had served for six months. This pension system set important precedents for the relationship of the veteran and the federal government. Subsequently, after every major war, veterans often received pensions and other benefits by virtue of their wartime service.
[See also Revolutionary War: Postwar Impact; Revolutionary War: Changing Interpretations.]
Bibliography
- John C. Dann, ed., The Revolution Remembered: Eyewitness Accounts of the War for Independence, 1980.
- John P. Resch, Politics and Public Culture: The Revolutionary War Pension Act of 1818,
Journal of the Early Republic ,8 (Summer 1988), pp. 139–58
