Loyalists and Redcoats

It is the author's purpose to trace the role of the loyalists in British military policy throughout the war. He has also given careful consideration to the impact of politics on strategy relating to the loyalists. The subject is varied and somewhat diffuse; the ambivalence of the British attitude toward the loyalists easily obscures their role. The North ministry was at once eager to use them and unwilling to make the concessions and detailed preparations required to weld them in to an efficient force. Moreover, administration policy was influenced by narrow political and financial considerations as well as by the loyalists' potential support.