Comments by "" (@obsidianjane4413) on "The Poor Lieutenant's Feast" video.

  1. But that changes quickly with promotion and time-in-service. Relatively anyway. Continental officers still got on better and much more comfortably than the common soldiers. The main difference between American and English officer corps is that they didn't have a landed aristocracy backing them. Some would be from plantation owners, but not all were wealthy etc.
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  2. Yep. Which I why I chose not to join the navy. And the US Navy is probably one of the more egalitarian around the world. Some of it is for pragmatic reasons (familiarity breeds contempt etc.) but most is a tradition that benefits those with power to change it, so it doesn't change.
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  3. OTOH; A private is only responsible for himself and his equipment. An officer is responsible for an entire unit and knowing and being mindful of the men's welfare and employing them to preserve the unit. Its a much greater responsibility and so the rewards are better.
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  4. It would have been of whatever was provided which can be highly variable. Whatever proteins could be secured as well as grains. Sometimes it would be processed flour, other times wheat or oat if all that was available. Even junior officers tended to have "attendants". Ie; camp followers, be they wives, family, or servants. So they had to feed them as well.
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  5. Navy or USMC they do, but not in the army or AF they don't.
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  6. Just for him. But, even junior officers would often have "attendants", family, or servants that would be fed from this allotment.
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  7. I was "hopping" someone would point that out.
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  8. Depends on the era. Early on it would be to the lord whom sponsored the regiment. Later on it would have been to the Crown. This is from the feudal tradition where noble families would supply a levy of troops to the king and its officers would be the land owner, his sons, or hired knights. The price would have been higher than common folk could afford, but not that much for an upper class gentleman. They received pay, the the expectation was still that they "had means" from their own estates up until the 19th century. By then armies were so large that this wasn't practical, so it became "a job" that was opened up to anyone who had education and "bearing".
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  9. The early US Navy was modelled a lot on the Royal Navy. They had to have a sponsor. Either a captain of the ship the would serve on, or more often a lord ,errr. governor or admiral who would be doing a political favor to an influential family. They were almost always from the upper classes. The US Navy was a bit more egalitarian in that a smart, hard working seaman (rare) or an experienced civilian ship's master could also gain a commission.
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  10.  @user-oj5bw7sl8p  Yes. And naval officers would get large shares in any prizes captured.
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  11. RHIP.
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