Militia Duty Quotes
The notion that all the Americans fought bravely in the American Revolution is a myth. George Washington and his other generals were constantly frustrated by some of the state militias which complained often, sometimes mutinied, and frequently ran from battles as in this example of the North Carolina Militia. The federal troops, trained by Washington and his officers, with longer enlistment periods than the militia fought much better and together with the French, won the war.
There is a , romantic American myth about the Militiamen in Colonial and Revolutionary America—the citizen soldiers who would leave their farms and rise to the military necessity of the day. However, not only were the militia very hard to muster to duty, but most actually didn’t own or have experience with firearms, and the prevailing opinion of knowledgeable military leaders from George Washington on down was that the militia were not very good soldiers. See {613015}, {613016}, {613022}, {613027}, {621987}, {621988}, {613030}, {613033}, & {613056}.
Surprising to most Americans today, at that time, the Governors controlled the State militias, and in this case two Governors refused to make their militias available for the war effort. This experience and others led to the change which today allows the Federal Government to “call up” the National Guard of any state regardless of the desire of the State Governor.
Note the egalitarian and democratic nature of the method of selection of military officers. This was typical of frontier thinking—the men who were putting their lives on the line should have a say in who their leaders would be. The Governor and the legislature could only select the top officers like the Adjutant General or the Major General. Congress had retained the power to appoint general officers but allowed them and the civilian secretaries of the armed services to select all other officers. The latter enabled wealthy people to be appointed officers without any necessary competence and many even in the Civil War in effect bought their appointments by paying for the uniforms or bringing weapons. While America became more democratic and egalitarian over its first two centuries, the appointment of military officers is the one area where it became less democratic and egalitarian. The election of officers so popular in many states was gradually and finally abolished.
