colonial militia were local defense forces, often used to respond to Native American attacks
Source: National Park Service, New Archeological Discoveries at Moores Creek National Battlefield
colonial militia were local defense forces, often used to respond to Native American attacks
Source: National Park Service, New Archeological Discoveries at Moores Creek National Battlefield
England relied upon local militia rather than a standing army for land defense into the 1600's. As an island, it was less subject to a land invasion that other European nations which established full-time national armies in the mid-1600's. England invested primarily in the Royal Navy to block invasion by Spain or France, while other monarchs in Europe invested in standing armies.
The military revolution in Europe after the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia enabled individual kings of a country to seize control of warfare from nobles. The power of centralized government increased when the nobles, who had previously commanded poorly-trained subjects to attack rivals, became leaders in the monarch's army. Standing armies could be used to suppress rebellions and keep a monarch in power.
The standing armies were better trained and better equipped than the decentralized militia and mobs that had previously conducted warfare. Standing armies were also more expensive to maintain.
Each war required higher taxes to pay for short-term costs. In England, the elite landowners who controlled Parliament remained reluctant to allow the king to decide when to declare war. Parliament could block a king's military "adventure" based on a personal agenda, such as supporting a family member's attempt to gain the throne in France or Spain.
Parliament kept the standing army small. It chose to rely upon the Royal Navy plus the militia for defense against invasion, fearing the king might use the army to overpower rival nobles. The English Civil War in the mid-1600's demonstrated that threat.
Forcing monarchs to obtain Parliamentary approval to finance an army also limited the king or queen's ability to engage in foreign wars that lacked popular support. The monarch had power of the sword, but Parliament had power of the purse.
The 1688 Glorious Revolution established the primacy of Parliament over the monarch; that became fundamental element in the unwritten English "constitution." A standing army became acceptable to England's power brokers in Parliament because they finally controlled it, rather than a monarch who claimed unlimited authority based on the divine right of kings. By the time of the American Revolution, England was dependent upon both a professional army as well as the Royal Navy, and the English militia became a marginal force.
The Virginia colonists were not wealthy enough to afford full-time soldiers or a navy. Nearly everyone was engaged in agriculture; they needed to be home, especially to plant in the spring and to harvest in the fall. The Virginia General Assembly relied upon the local militia for defense, up to the start of the American Revolution. Only occasionally did it authorize creation of special provincial forces.
During the time Virginia was a owned by the Virgina Company, John Smith and other company leaders organized and trained colonists to provide a defense against Native American attack. The 1622 attack caught settlers by surprise, but afterwards they organized raids against Native American towns.
In 1624, the General Assembly decided that the families of men wounded or killed while fighting the Native Americans would receive public support. At times when a man was forced to serve on defense or a raid, his neighbors were obligated to help with the farm chores.
Starting with the creation of counties in 1634, the governor designated lieutenants and other officers for each county. In 1639, "all persons except negroes" were required to provide militia service when needed. The new governor in 1642, William Berkeley, was sent to Virginia with orders to organize all men between 16-60 years of age into a militia and schedule regular training.1
Opposition in Virginia to a standing army mirrored the Whig perspective in England. Virginia's plantation owners welcomed independence from oversight by London officials located 3,000 miles away across the Atlantic Oceans. The elite appointed to the Governor's Council and elected to the House of Burgesses opposed the centralized control that a royal governor could exert through a standing army.
No American colony maintained a paid, standing army. In Virginia, military responses to Native American attacks were organized as needed until 1652, when the General Assembly assigned responsibility to local officials to serve as military leaders.2
The governor and his Governor's Council appointed county court justices of the peace to handle civil affairs. They appointed county lieutenants and subordinate officers down to company captains to manage military affairs. Local captains appointed sergeants and ensigns.
All white males, other than indentured servants, automatically became members of the local militia when they reached the age of 16. The militia was organized by county, and the governor relied upon local leaders to identify who should be appointed as the county lieutenant in charge of the militia. Men required to be part of the militia were reluctant to leave their chores to perform military duty on a regular basis throughout the year. To get men to muster voluntarily, county lieutenants and captains needed to be respected.
Robert Carter was appointed to command the militia in Lancaster and Northumberland counties in 1720. He warned the governor not to appoint subordinate officers until Carter could determine who could be effective leaders in those counties:3
Daniel Park Custis (first husband of Martha Custis Washington, George Washington's wife) was appointed by Governor Gooch to be Lieutenant Colonel of the New Kent County militia in 1740
Source: Encyclopedia Virginia, Commission in the Virginia Militia
To assemble the militia to respond to threats, riders on horses would spread the word to various farms. The men would gather as needed, respond to the threat as commanded, and then return to their farms.
In theory, there were regular training sessions of the militia at the county courthouse. In times of peace, however, those sessions became largely social events. The County Lieutenant was often a candidate for the House of Burgesses and strict discipline of essentially volunteer soldiers was rare. At times, the drinking during the militia assemblies was more intense than the target practice.
the Bill of Rights refers to a "well regulated" militia
Source: Library of Congress, Congress of the United States in the House of representatives. Monday, 24th August, 1789
Men with crops to plant and harvest were reluctant to serve for more than a few weeks during wartime. When a militia unit received rare orders to march to another colony, the reluctance of soldiers to cross the political boundary was based in large part on a desire to return home soon.
Virginia militia who fought at the Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781 are remembered on the visitor center's monument
Whatever equipment was issued to the militia had a tendency to be lost or damaged. Some items were obviously sold or kept for personal profit. The militia motivations were basic, with patriotism towards the colony not at the top of the list.
in the 1660's the Virginia elite accepted a high level of risk regarding attack by the Dutch and by pirates in the Chesapeake Bay. The plantation owners were dependent upon transatlantic shipping for exporting tobacco and importing manufactured goods, but accepted the deployment of a small, under-gunned guard ship to the Chesapeake Bay after the Dutch had successfully captured the tobacco fleet in 1673.
A more-powerful guardship would have offered more protection, but also would have been more effective at collecting import and export duties. Pirates were able to overwhelm the 16-gun Essex in 1699, after which the 28-gun Shoreham was sent to Virginia.4
On land, the earliest colonial alarms which triggered a militia response were threats from Native Americans rather than Spain or other European powers. The General Assembly judged that the militia, together with scattered forts and special rangers hired to patrol the backcountry, would be adequate to protect the plantation houses in Tidewater.
In the 1660's, small farmers on the edge of settlement felt too exposed. They viewed the backcountry forts (at the time, near the Fall Line) as expensive investments which triggered extra taxes but provided little extra security. Nathanial Bacon was able to recruit an army of rebels in 1676 to challenge the authority of Governor William Berkeley because he was seen as ineffective in providing homeland security.
The British enlisted colonists for service during Queen Anne's War. In 1709, former Virginia governor Francis Nicholson assembled 1,500 provincial troops and British Regulars along Lake Champlain to attack French Canada. While that army did not advance a year later Nicholson led British ships and men in a successful attack to capture Port Royal in Acadia. Men in Massachusetts were willing to join that army because privateers from the French port were seizing merchant ships.
In 1740 during the War of Jenkin's Ear, 4,000 English colonists were recruited to join in the attack on Spainish colonies that today are Colombia, Panama, and Cuba. From Virginia, 400 men served in four companies. Lawrence Washington spent two years fighting in the West Indies. He grew to admire Admiral Edward Vernon, the co-commander of the British forces, and named his home Mount Vernon in honor of the admiral.5
During the French and Indian War colonies creating "provincial regulars," the closest equivalent to the professional soldiers that had developed in the English army. Provincial regulars enlisted for a term of service and were guaranteed pay for that period.
Bounties of cash and land attracted primarily the "idle poor" who had less to lose, and thus were more willing to volunteer. Recruits were rarely the most-disciplined or hardest-working members in the county. Those enlisting for a bounty often arrived in camp without the required clothing, guns, powder, and ammunition.
George Washington got his first experience as a military commander trying to defend the western edge of colonial settlement with provincial regulars and militia. He was proud of that service, which was challenging and involved significant failure in recruiting and managing the Virginia Regiment of Provincial Regulars. His first portrait, painted in 1772, shows him dressed in the uniform of that time.
George Washington was an officer in the Virginia Regiment of Provincial Regulars, which was a separate unit from the county militia
Source: Washington and Lee University, W&L, Mount Vernon Announce Mutual Loan of Washington Portraits
Governor Dinwiddie issued a proclamation on February 19, 1754 announcing land bounties for those who enlisted, and he reserved 200,000 acres on the east side of the Ohio River next to the fort at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers.6
Washington struggled to obtain and trained enough soldiers for a sustained campaign. One author has described the behaviors of militia units sent to serve at Winchester in 1757:7
Bedford County militia who fought at Point Pleasant in 1774 are commemorated by a plaque on the lawn of the county courthouse
Virginia militia units, the Overmountain Men who fought at Kings Mountain in 1780, are remembered on a battlefield monument in South Carolina