Sealed with Blood

Sarah J. Purcell. Sealed with Blood: War, Sacrifice, and Memory in Revolutionary America.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002

This books takes a subject which on first glance may seem limited--the ways in which public remembrance of Revolutionary War heroes changed in the first half-century of American history. However, Purcell explains in the Introduction that "To understand how the Revolutionary War contributed to the earliest formation of national identity is to understand something crucial and long lasting about American political culture." (10) The subsequent chapters support that statement. By tracing how American chose to remember and honor those who had suffered--and especially, particularly in earlier years, those who had died--in the Revolutionary War, Purcell is able to illustrate how early American nationalism was increasingly contested between elite-oriented Republican ideals and emerging democratic norms.

The book is divided into five chapters, covering the era in chronological order. According to Purcell, remembrance went through discrete stages during different periods; first, during the war itself; then, during the Articles of Confederation era; changed again during the Federalist era; evolved towards more democratic norms from 1801 to 1819; and then what was left of the unitary nature of Revolutionary commemoration fractured from 1800 to 1825, on the verge of the Jacksonian period.

In general, the movement was towards greater democratization--in the early chapters, Purcell argues that it was widely accepted by most Americans that it was fitting that elite officers who died in battle should be commemorated in the interests of the greater Republican good. The idea of honoring ordinary soldiers never came up, and would have been regarded as counter-productive; deference was still an important social value during the Revolutionary period. (22)

But while ordinary Americans were not at first fit subjects for commemoration, they had an important role to play in these rituals--the widespread participation of Americans of different strata of society, including women, was both expected and indeed necessary in order for society to be united and proper national feeling derived from such ceremonies, writings, and memorials.

Later, however, events would force the sacrifices and experiences of ordinary Americans to the forefront, and increasingly both the memoirs of middling and working-class participants in the Revolutions, as well as memorials dedicated to the collective sacrifice of ordinary soldiers, would be seen as proper and even necessary functions of national collective remembrance. As a second war with Britain loomed on the horizon in the early 19th century, there was also a new focus on the naval experience in the Revolution. This ultimately led to a recognition of the suffering of American prisoners on British prison ships--a powerful parallel to what impressed sailors were going through as the War of 1812 drew near.

Finally, the return of the Marquis de Lafayette to America allowed for surviving veterans to take a place in the very public, and very national, spectacle of Lafayette's return. The elderly French hero was very welcoming to all former veterans--even, on some very notable occasions, to African-American veterans who otherwise had been written out of the evolving orthodox narrative.

By this point, not only had the deference to great leaders as emblematic of the entire national experience passed, but also the notion that there was one, unified national memory that all Americans could agree on and rally around was little more than a comforting illusion. Americans North and South would continue to insist that the Revolution held a special meaning, but they would disagree more and more strongly about what that meaning was.