Yankee Doodle

Until the moment I read that American soldiers played "Yankee Doodle" at the surrender of nearly 6,000 Redcoats under British General Burgoyne at Saratoga in 1777, I thought, like I think many people, that 'doodles' were supposed to be something cute and curly like pasta macaroni.  I wasn't sure why people were sticking macaroni (feathers) in their caps, but hey, sing it and go with it – it's a cute Patriotic tune.  The levels of irony in this, though, are pretty interesting when considering the entire context of the Revolutionary War, and that "Yankee Doodle" was an original score by a Brit in America who was essentially mocking the peasant nature of the average rag-tag American citizen and soldier.

In the early years of the War, The Continental Army was thought of as a military joke to the well-trained, experienced, well-clothed

and 'controlled' British Army.  The Continentals, on the other hand, were a disparate crew, untrained, regional in their self-interests, often marching without any semblance of uniformity in look or strategic understanding, much of the time literally sock and shoe-less.  Redcoats scoffed at them. They could hardly believe that they were forced to engage an army that acted as though they were more in tune with the native culture than the model of a professional soldier – rifleman, for example, ducking and weaving behind trees or laying down in the dirt to take their fire then retreating back into the home-field advantage of the forest.  A 'Doodle,' then, in actuality was a mocking term used to describe certain country types that might aspire to be stylish by that era's terms.  Macaroni was slang for 'dandyish' (trying to be British).  


More broadly, the context of the American Revolutionary War effectively lasted the range of years 1775-1783, from the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord to the full-on Siege of Boston at Bunker Hill up until George Washington eventually returned to New York to a hero's welcome

after the Battle of Yorktown, which forced Britain's acknowledgement of the American claim of independence.  What happened to the 'Yankee Doodles' in between these years might very well be the most interesting historical secret generally kept from American students.  After Washington's famous crossing of the Delaware and following victories at Princeton

and Trenton, then the effective forage war during the winter of 1777, not only did the momentum of the war shift from a forgone conclusion that the Patriots were no match for those well-dressed British Regulars, but Washington and his generals began to understand that dictating momentum was absolutely critical.  This attitude, along with more experience and organization, paved the way for a turning point in the War at the Battle of Saratoga, NYwhere 6,000 Redcoats had to surrender – a gigantic number by the battle standards of the time.  Although only days later would another British force rally and take Philadelphia, the playing of "Yankee Doodle" would have been the bitterest of pills to swallow for the British Army and Crown.