Were you aware that there were Scottish AND Irish men in the British army during the Revolutionary War?

[BritishRegular]

Many Scots don't recognise themselves as British, and the Irish go into a frenzy when they're within earshot of the word "British." And Americans go: "Irishmen and Scots in the British military? You can't have that!"

On the contrary; many of the officers were from Scotland (such as Major John Pitcairn) and Ireland, in case you didn't know.

Updates

+1 y

Scotsmen and Irishmen among the "Redcoats." Americans wouldn't like that. 🤷‍♂️😂

[EtherealGuy]

Hang on a moment.

Scottish people ARE British. Speaking as an Englishman with a very mixed heritage (within the islands), I've never even heard a Scottish person refuse to be called British. They are, however, NOT English.

The Irish question is a very tricky one. People from Northern Island are both Irish and British at the same time, whereas people from the Republic would shout at you for calling them British.

Moving back to the topic at hand -- yes, the British Army has always been mixed with people from across the British Isles and the Empire. As you say, a lot of officers have been Scottish or Welsh as well as English. Less so have been Irish but that's for many reasons I won't get into here.

The idea that the English exclusively ran the Empire or fought for the Empire is entirely unsound and should be clarified in the minds of laypeople. Many voluntarily believed in its values (such as, eventually, the global abolition of slavery etc.)

In fact, at one point, the majority of vessels in the Navy were crewed by a mix of British people from across the empire and freed slaves from the West African slave trade.

[USLegionary]

Of course there were many Germans in the British army during the period.

During The French and Indian War (1754–1763) the French were kicking the British around pretty hard up until Scottish regiments arrived in the Americas some of whom had fought at culloden. They were very hardy fighters, service in the British army meant food and money, and transportation to the new world. These Scots znd their descendants would settle and kick the British out.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/IRlF2Y7pQHI

In the war of the spainish peninsula 1/3 of the British army were Irish, service in the British army allowed them to escape famine brought on by bad governance from the British government.

Even today a lot of Irish have served in the British military as was the case in WW1&2. The Irish have also served well in the US Army in huge numbers.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/tAVkh2HOPqg

Would also point out that a lot of Americans served in the British Army ie George Washington and even Irish Republican leader of the Irish Citizen Army and Irish Republican Army leader served in the British Army.

https://youtu.be/7w4iMNYusLA

[Bee-Hatch]

That term "British Army" has a long standing history with a huge amount of regiments. Regiments from the Four countries of the union. You'd have to be ignorant as fuck to think there weren't Scottish or Irish regiments involved.


The Royal Scots and the Connaught Rangers (Irish) were already over 100 years old by the start of that minor war in the colonies.