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Abstract

By the summer of 1776, Georgia was committed to the idea of separation from Great Britain and the formation of a union with twelve other rebelling colonies. Due to its relative youth as a colony and the presence of a popular and dynamic governor, Georgia was slow to embrace the revolutionary enthusiasm which gripped the other colonies. However, once the decision was made to rebel against British authorities, Georgia’s revolutionary leaders were eager to demonstrate their enthusiasm for the self-described cause of liberty. One method of displaying revolutionary enthusiasm was the establishment, at the request of congress, of regular, or Continental, forces as part of the colonial military establishment. To be Not Idle in the Chain of Union examines the correspondence between Georgia’s leadership, the Continental Congress, and the military officers commissioned by the colony to find recruits. The nature of the economy in colonial Georgia, resistance to the establishment of congressional forces, as well competition from South Carolina made it very difficult to find the recruits necessary to fill the Georgia Continental Line. However, progress was made and Georgia’s military leader could claim to their superiors that Georgia was militarily as well as politically a part of the revolution. Recent scholarship in the military history of the American Revolution shifted from the traditional image of the yeoman farmer impulsively taking up arms to investigation of the immense difficulty in establishing military forces. Important to the new scholarship is the relationship between the political goals of the revolution and the pragmatic issues of maintaining standing forces. To Be Not Idle In the Great Chain of Union is an important addition to the new scholarship by examining the relationship of political and military concerns in the youngest and arguably poorest of the rebelling colonies.

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