Reasons for joining

[CBR]

Obviously there is a good chance you'll die once the whole front line of an opposing army opens fire, its loke litteraly a wall of lead.

Although there are examples of units losing most of the first rank in just one salvo, that was pretty rare really. Plus artillery did something like 50% of the killing if not more and cannon balls had enough energy to go through multiple ranks.

And in the end soldiers might have had bigger concern about diseases. For example, the US army in the ACW lost twice as many men to disease than battle.

Another thing to consider is overall battlefield lethality. A losing army could recieve horrible losses in the pursuit and that is something that was pretty rare in later Napoleonic battles. As armies now occupied a much larger area it was easier to get away, as well as more difficult to inflict a total rout on the losing side.

Now all this might not be something a half drunk young man considers when he signs the contract, but at least it shows that gunpowder didnt really make enlisting more suicidal than earlier.


CBR

[Mithradates]

I reckon pay was a fairly large insentive. Bands of recruiters would no doubt roam the country saying how good the pay was and it was fairly decent. What they didnt realise was that they had to pay for most of their own equipment which put them in enough debt to make the actualy salary costs negligible.

[The Stranger]

they thought as throughout ages war was glory... untill tey got out of it... i mean even till nam american soldiers enlisted because it was their "duty" and so many think that when they join the army