16101 Continental Line Officer Standing At Ease

The majority of the enlisted men of the Continental Army came from the working class and were motivated to volunteer for service by specific contracts that promised bounty money, regular pay, food, and clothing. The officers of both the Continental Army and the state militias were typically yeoman farmers with a sense of honor and status and an ideological commitment to oppose the policies of the British Crown. Uniforms for officers were usually purchased by the individual and as a result could be open to interpretation state by state. This officer conforms to the uniform regulations of 1779 for the Mid-Atlantic states that eventually became the uniform of the small post war army.