Little men, however, cannot see this and think to gain support by shifty changes of opinion to please the multitude.

What authority and decision could be expected from an officer of the peasant type, elected by his own men?
How could he dominate men whose short term of service was expiring and who had to be coaxed to renew it?
Some elected officers had to promise to pool their pay with that of their men.

In one company an officer fulfilled the double position of captain and barber.

In time, however, the authority of military rank came to be respected throughout the whole army.

An amusing contrast with earlier conditions is found in 1779 when a captain was tried by a brigade court-martial and dismissed from the service for intimate association with the wagon-maker of the brigade.
The first thing to do at Cambridge was to get rid of the inefficient and the corrupt.