A Proper Sense of Honor: Service and Sacrifice in George Washington's Army

This book examines the decision of the Revolutionary leadership to create a gentlemanly officer corps and the effects of the decision as the Continental Army's ranks came to be made up of society's poorest men. The differing standard of physical treatment for soldiers and officers in punishment, sickness, and death is the prism through which Caroline Cox studies social relations both within the army and between it and the larger society. The army was an organization that both reinforced order and rank but also offered some social mobility.