It was Wednesday, July 24, 1776.
George Washington’s army needed clothes.
The commander in chief knew that uniforms were expensive and difficult to obtain. He would not order one standard outfit for troops who lacked even basic clothing.
Instead, Washington encouraged men who remained unprovided to wear hunting shirts with matching long breeches fitted around the legs.
“No Dress can be had cheaper, nor more convenient,” his General Orders stated.
Washington saw more than economy in the distinctive backcountry clothing. He called it “a dress justly supposed to carry no small terror to the enemy, who think every such person a complete Marksman.”
In Philadelphia, Congress expanded the maritime property subject to American capture, approved Henry Knox’s plan for another artillery battalion, placed southern ranger forces on the Continental establishment and authorized another prisoner exchange.
Congress was building military power. Washington was turning a clothing shortage into an American advantage.
The DX Brief
- Washington encouraged soldiers without adequate clothing to wear hunting shirts with matching long breeches.
- He said the outfit was cheaper and more convenient than other clothing and could work in warm or cool weather.
- Washington believed the shirts carried “no small terror” because British troops associated their wearers with expert marksmen.
- Congress widened its maritime prize rules to cover property belonging to British subjects and others aiding the king, while preserving stated island exceptions.
- Congress approved Henry Knox’s plan for another artillery battalion and asked Washington to recommend its officers.
- South Carolina’s ranger regiment entered Continental service, and Congress called for a matching force in Georgia.
- Congress empowered Washington to exchange Gov. Philip Skene for James Lovell.
- Delegates continued debating the Articles of Confederation but did not finish.
Washington turns necessity into an advantage
Washington’s July 24 General Orders began with an ordinary supply problem. Each brigade needed to estimate how much paper its regiments required every month for returns and other official uses.
The larger concern was clothing.
Washington acknowledged “the dificulty, and expence of providing Cloaths” for the army. He was reluctant even to recommend a uniform, much less order one, but said the men needed clothing and had to “appear decent and tight.”
He then promoted a practical alternative: hunting shirts with long breeches made from the same cloth and fitted around the legs in gaiter fashion.
The outfit could adapt to the weather. Soldiers could remain cool during summer and add layers underneath during cold conditions without changing the outward appearance.
Washington’s order did not establish a universal Continental Army uniform. It offered a cheap, recognizable solution for men who still lacked proper clothing.
Why hunting shirts mattered
The hunting shirt had developed in the Virginia backcountry and became closely associated with American riflemen. Reports of their marksmanship helped give the garment a reputation beyond its practical use.
Washington wanted the rest of the army to benefit from that reputation.
His order said the enemy viewed every soldier dressed that way as “a complete Marksman.” A British soldier looking across the field could not know whether the man in a hunting shirt was an expert rifleman or a newly clothed infantryman.
The uncertainty had value. The army could clothe soldiers inexpensively while making more of them look like the marksmen British troops had learned to fear.
Washington did not need a costly uniform to create a common military image. He used a garment already tied to American frontier warfare.
Congress widens maritime prize rules
Congress spent July 24 expanding the property that American forces and private armed vessels could capture.
The final resolution extended earlier March 23 and April 3 rules covering ships, tackle, apparel, furniture, goods, wares and merchandise taken on the high seas or between high and low water.
Those rules had applied to property belonging to inhabitants of Great Britain. Congress broadened them to property belonging to any subject of the British king or anyone who adhered to, aided or abetted him in the war.
The resolution preserved Congress’ stated exceptions for inhabitants of Bermuda and Providence or the Bahama Islands.
The wording mattered. Congress did not authorize the seizure of every piece of British-owned property wherever Americans found it. The action expanded the defined maritime prize system governing vessels and cargo captured at sea or along the shoreline.
Independence had transformed British commerce from the property of fellow subjects into a potential source of lawful wartime prizes under rules set by Congress.
Congress approves more artillery and rangers
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Washington had forwarded Henry Knox’s proposal for a larger, permanent artillery force on July 22 and warned that the existing corps barely covered the army’s posts.
Two days later, Congress approved Knox’s plan for “another batallion of artillery” and ordered it carried out “as soon as possible.” Congress asked Washington to recommend the officers who would compose the corps.
The decision strengthened a branch of the army that required specialized training. Cannon could not serve the American cause without officers and crews able to move, aim, fire and maintain them.
Congress also placed South Carolina’s ranger regiment on the Continental establishment. The authorized structure included 500 privates, and the rangers could “act on horseback, or foot, as occasion may require.”
It directed Georgia to raise a matching ranger force under the same pay and duties.
Their ability to serve on horseback or foot emphasized mobility rather than a single fixed role.
Washington gets authority for another exchange
Congress also empowered Washington to exchange Gov. Philip Skene for James Lovell.
Lovell was a Boston advocate for American liberty whom British authorities had held as a close prisoner. Congress had instructed Washington in January to offer Skene in exchange for Lovell and his family.
The July 24 resolution renewed Washington’s authority to complete the exchange for Lovell.
Prisoner exchanges had become part of the government Congress was building. The broad exchange framework Congress adopted two days earlier now sat beside a specific effort to recover a man Congress had praised for his fidelity to the American cause.
Congress keeps debating the union
Delegates again resolved themselves into a committee of the whole to consider the Articles of Confederation.
They made further progress but did not finish. Congress scheduled another session for July 25.
It also recommitted a report on gold and silver coins and added Thomas Jefferson to the committee.
The work showed the range of problems confronting Congress. Delegates were defining relations among the states, considering money, regulating maritime captures, organizing troops and managing prisoners at the same time.
Why it mattered
July 24, 1776, showed the new nation learning to fight with what it had.
Congress widened the legal reach of American maritime captures, approved another artillery battalion and brought ranger forces into national service.
Washington faced a more immediate shortage. His men needed clothing, but the army could not afford an elaborate uniform system.
He chose a garment that was inexpensive, adaptable and already associated with American marksmanship.
The result joined necessity with intimidation. A hunting shirt could cover a soldier, identify him with the American cause and make the enemy wonder whether a marksman stood inside it.
Congress added cannon and rangers. Washington added fear.
Tomorrow on Road to Independence
July 25, 1776: Washington warned that soldiers “fighting in the Cause of Liberty, and their Country” could not be less disciplined than men “fighting to enslave us, for two pence, or three pence a day,” after courts-martial punished desertion, drunkenness and sleeping on post.
Follow the full Road to Independence series here.
Provided by Dallas Express
