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A revolutionary people at war : the Continental Army and American character, 1775-1783 / by Charles Royster. Chapel Hill : Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Va., by the University of North Carolina Press, c1979. Main Library, E259 .R69 This book assumes that there was an American character prevalent during the War for Independence and that it affected the conduct of the war. In the chapter on Valley Forge, the author says, "because of the distinctive character of American soldiers, the Continental Army remained quite different from European armies. To prevail within the American army, professionalism would have to be accommodated to the spirit of the Continental privates. Their temperament combined paradoxical elements that seldom conformed to the European military goal of predictability. European officers who marveled at the American soldier's lack of discipline in 1777 were even more amazed at the soldiers' docility amid hardships during the ensuing winter. A European army, observers agreed, would long since have mutinied or broken up when pay and food ran out."