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Don N. Hagist

Surviving the Lash: Corporal Punishment and British Soldiers’ Careers

Punishment for Revolutionary War soldiers often meant lashing. How could a soldier survive such punishment? And how likely was a soldier to be lashed?

This talk uses original punishment records and medical writings to examine how lashing was designed to be survivable, and what portion of soldiers in British regiments received this type of corporal punishment.

Don Hagist

Don N. Hagist, (dhagist@mail.com) is managing editor of Journal of the American Revolution (allthingsliberty.com), is an independent researcher specializing in the demographics and material culture of the British Army in the American Revolution. He maintains a blog about British common soldiers (redcoat76.blogspot.com) and has published a number of articles in academic journals. His books include The Revolution’s Last Men: the Soldiers Behind the Photographs (Westholme Publishing, 2015), British Soldiers, American War (Westholme Publishing, 2012), A British Soldier’s Story: Roger Lamb’s Narrative of the American Revolution (Ballindalloch Press, 2004), General Orders: Rhode Island (Heritage Books, 2001) and Wives, Slaves and Servant Girls (Westholme, 2016). Don works as an engineering consultant in Rhode Island, and also writes for several well-known syndicated and freelance cartoonists..