Class and social structure within early seventeenth-century Saxon units, including the Mansfeld Regiment, seems to have been different from later armies in several important respects. Although commoners were less well-represented in more honorable or prestigious roles, the army could be a source of social mobility. Some men served in the Saxon army for multiple years, and some families for multiple decades. Soldiers probably picked up military experience through long immersion in the military way of life rather than formal drilling. Within this context, social distance between ranks seems to have been less pronounced in early seventeenth-century armies than in later armies or contemporary civilian life. The close social and physical proximity between officers and men led to fights.

Three thick descriptions offer detailed accounts of the ongoing squabbles among the Mansfeld Regiment’s third-in-command/regimental quartermaster Wolfgang Winckelman and two officers in his company: flag-bearer Hieronymus Sebastian Schutze and lieutenant Felix Steter. These men’s actions demonstrate the importance of individual agency in addition to structural accounts of history, as well as the history of alcohol and drunkenness, dueling, and masculinity.