physique they were larger than the British soldier, a result due
to abundant food and free life in the open air from childhood.
Most of the men supplied their own uniform and rifles and much
barter went on in the hours after drill. The men made and sold
shoes, clothes, and even arms. They were accustomed to farm life
and good at digging and throwing up entrenchments. The colonial
mode of waging war was, however, not that of Europe. To the
regular soldier of the time even earth entrenchments seemed a
sign of cowardice. The brave man would come out on the open to
face his foe. Earl Percy, who rescued the harassed British on the
day of Lexington, had the poorest possible opinion of those on
what he called the rebel side. To him they were intriguing
rascals, hypocrites, cowards, with sinister designs to ruin the
Empire. But he was forced to admit that they fought well and
faced death willingly.

In time Washington gathered about him a fine body of officers,
brave, steady, and efficient. On the great issue they, like
himself, had unchanging conviction, and they and he saved the
revolution. But a good many of his difficulties were due to bad
officers. He had himself the reverence for gentility, the belief
in an ordered grading of society, characteristic of his class in
that age. In Virginia the relation of master and servant was well
understood and the tone of authority was readily accepted. In New
England conceptions of equality were more advanced. The extent to
which the people would brook the despotism of military command
was uncertain. From the first some of the volunteers had elected
their officers. The result was that intriguing demagogues were
sometimes chosen. The Massachusetts troops, wrote a Connecticut
captain, not free, perhaps, from local jealousy, were "commanded