Why was it difficult to find and keep soldiers in the continetal army?

Answer 1

Almost everybody in the US was a farmer - well over 90%. Most had families, and few could see how they could leave wife and children to go off for three years or the duration of the war, leaving the wife and small children to try to feed themselves as best they could. Most men preferred militia service, which was of shorter time spans and closer to home, and so was seen as more in actual defense of their own homes. This was particularly true in the south, where there was very little actual fighting against British or Hessian forces in the first four years of the war, but plenty of murderous civil war type fighting between local groups of both sides, all preying on the farmers. Another issue was bounties, paid to enlistees. Washington could offer only whatever Congress had authorized, usually $20. Some states paid up to $85 for enlistment in state troops, and Maryland even imprisoned two officers of the Continental Army for enlisting two of its citizens in the Continental Artillery. Privates in the Continental Army were paid (if they got paid) 6 and 2/3 dollars a month, so the bounty was a great incentive. Another issue was Washington's efforts to instill discipline and punish deserters, which included numerous hangings and liberal use of the cat-o-nine tails for flogging. Washington was not satisfied when the number of permissible lashes was increased by Congress from 39 to 100 - he wanted 500, usually effectively a death sentence (though Daniel Morgan had survived 500 lashes in the French and Indian War, for striking a British officer, even though Morgan was a civilian teamster and not a military person at the time). In one instance Washington had a man beheaded and placed the head on a pike at the camp gate at Morristown, New Jersey. The bad food, poor medical care, lack of clothing, harsh discipline, low pay and required service far from home, when one's home was actually threatened all combined to cause men to prefer militia service to enlistment on the Continental establishment.

Answer 2

There was no pay, a lack of food and equipment, harsh conditions, and work left unattended at home.