This week's thoughts: Who answered the call to arms?
If you've done your reading, you've probably run across the statement (from a foreign officer's journal)that American troops were composed of "old men and young boys". I ran across a representative sample of soldiers' ages while researching my genealogy. The DAR Patriot Index lists 21 of my ancestors who've been recorded with that society. The age range, using the year 1776 as a reference point, is as follows:


age: number of soldiers:
59 1
52 2
45 1
38 1
36 2
30 2
28 2
26 1
22 3
19 3
17 1
15 1
12 1

Obviously, term of actual service is not accounted for in this table; but it does give an indication of age ranges from a particular geographic location(the New York city metro area). A sample size this small is not indicative of larger trends, but is illustrative in showing one family's enrollment.



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