"The men and boys as thick as hasty pudding" Topic

I've been idly wondering about this for a while, and the earlier post on naval landing parties pushed me to write.

Basically, in the song "Yankee Doodle," the second verse goes:

Fath'r and I went down to camp,
Along with Captain Gooding,
And there we saw the men and boys
As thick as hasty pudding.

Are they describing the people about the camp, distinguishing between adult Men and younger boys, who had different functions and roles, or is this just filling out the lines for the verse? Were they a species of camp followers (a group our century has tended to identify with "ladies of ill repute)?" Did they perform tasks around the camp, only to be left behind when active operations began?

Warships did have a group of "boys" assigned, who had their own jobs to do, but I had never thought of this in terms of land warfare.

Grelber

My guess is it's just what it says— older soldiers (men) and young soldiers (boys), with "thick as hasty pudding" merely implying crowded conditions, or possibly drilling in formation (perhaps poorly?).

The song was originally offered in mockery of colonials, especially militia fighting in the F&IW/7YW, of which a very real Captain Gooding was a commander. This verse is probably a commentary on the militia as being a wide range of ages, with no military competence or training. Thus, they look not like a precision body of drilled troops, but a jumble of men stirred about as a porridge. (One recipe for "hasty pudding" included raisins and currants, which would have produced a random, jumbled appearance in the bowl. It's also a North American dish, being derived from a common native Indian porridge, which was undoubtably considered "yokel food" by British officers.)

A quick internet search revealed that the slang meaning of 'thick' as 'stupid' can be found in the late 16th century. Shakespeare uses it in that sense in Henry IV Part 2 in 1600:

"..his wit's as thicke as Tewksbury mustard"

So perhaps the song was mocking the supposed stupidity of the colonial militia?

Probably doing double duty!

I was intrigued to discover that during the War of 1812 at least, "doodle" was Anglo-Canadian slang for Americans, as in "the doodles tried to ambush us, and we killed five of them" Presumably inspired by the song and not the other way around, but I wouldn't bet a large sum on it.

But no, I don't think "boys" was intended as a finctional category--just that some of the males present couldn't properly be called "men" yet. Thinking of a line in Lord Klavan of Otherwhen that they could raise perhaps 5,000 soldiers by stretching the age requirements "but not another child or dotard more."