“and accepted a $100 re-enlistment bonus in 1779”
just so you know that would be worth about $2,746 today
I think modern day re-enlistment bonuses are much higher than $2,746. Actually, I think they were higher than that when I was in the service 50 years ago.
I would think that was way low of an estimate. They did everything in Gold, Silver and Copper back then. In 1795, a $5 gold piece had 8.75 grams in it, of which it was .9167 gold. For 20 of those, it works out to 175 grams, which works out to around 5.626 ounces of Gold.
At $3,500 per ounce, that comes to $ 19,691.00 .
Of course some people may calculate inflation differently.