Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 149 



entreat, lead, and influence his men, but he could 

 not command them, or, if he did, the_ men obeyed 

 him only just so far as it suited them. If an officer 

 planned a scout or campaign, those who thought 

 proper accompanied him, and the others stayed at 

 home, and even those who went out came back if 

 the fit seized them, or perchance followed the lead 

 of an insubordinate junior officer whom they liked 

 better than they did his superior. 48 There was no 

 compulsion to perform military duties beyond dread 

 of being disgraced in the eyes of the neighbors, and 

 there was no pecuniary reward for performing 

 them; nevertheless the moral sentiment of a back- 

 woods community was too robust to tolerate habit- 

 ual remissness in military affairs, and the coward 

 and laggard were treated with utter scorn, and were 

 generally in the end either laughed out, or * 'hated 

 out/' of the neighborhood, or else got rid of in a still 

 more summary manner. Among a people naturally 

 brave and reckless, this public opinion acted fairly 

 effectively, and there was generally but little shrink- 

 ing from military service. 49 



A backwoods levy was formidable because of the 

 high average courage and prowess of the individ- 

 uals composing it; it was on its own ground much 

 more effective than a like force of regular soldiers, 

 but of course it could not be trusted on a long cam- 

 paign. The backwoodsmen used their rifles better 



48 As examples take Clark's last Indian campaign and the 

 battle of Blue Licks. 



49 Doddridge, 161, 185. 



