Militias in the American Revolution

Some Thoughts

Militias in the American Revolution

Some Thoughts

We hear about the causes of the American Revolution in school, and it usually revolves around taxes, new laws, Intolerable Acts, lack of representation in Parliament, tea, and so on. It seems to me that there were a couple of other fundamental reasons. One is that the colonies seemed to be on the verge of turning into an actual country in its own right and, if England were not careful, it would just sort of slip away into independence as it became more powerful. Another is that the colonies were full of peoples who had been fighting the English for centuries, as well as foreigners who had no allegiance to England in the first place. Many of the major players were the Scots, the Irish, the Welsh and the Scots-Irish, who had been their long time antagonists. Germans were a large component of the citizenry, and there were free blacks of African descent, as well as sundry others.

When England began its campaign of reigning in the colonies and increasing their control it, was decided in England that the best way to control the increasingly unruly Americans was to disarm them. It was this that actually touched off the war when British troops were sent to capture the arms of the Americans in Concord, near Boston. The Battle of Lexington and Concord ensued and the genie could not be put back in the bottle, though it was tried. Initially the thinking was to come to an acceptable agreement with the mother country, but that was really untenable and it was realized that the colonies needed to declare their independence. Certainly many disagreed; if you saw yourself as an English citizen residing in the colonies, proud of your country, you might see this as treason, and anyway, who wants to live in a banana republic?

At the time of the American Revolution the populous as a whole formed a colonies wide militia, distinct from the Continental Army. Roughly one fourth of the population was the estimate for it's size, one half being male, and one half of them being not too old or young, healthy enough and not away at sea. A fraction of them were “Minute Men”, ready to move at a moments notice.

Unlike an army, a militia did not have the ability to sustain itself in significant movements as it did not have the logistics of an army, nor did the members have the training or the equipment of a regular army. It's purpose was more a matter of local defense since of course, like a cop, an army is unlikely to be around when you need one. (The regular army under General Washington wasn't to great either, but things improved after Washington brought in Baron Von Steuben, to teach some fundamentals.)

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Baron-von-Steuben

It was of course militias that responded to Paul Revere and the other's warning that the British were coming, and it was the militias that drove them back to Boston, then it was militias that took up positions around Boston.

Throughout the war militias played an important roll. They acted as auxiliaries to the army when action was in their area, such as at the battle of Cowpens where they were critical, as well as outright militia victories at Kings Mountain and Bennington, but it may be that what was more important that their general presence. It would be much more difficult for the British to operate generally. Going on foraging expeditions, reconnaissance missions, just going to town to buy food, all would all be fraught with danger and difficulty.

In June of 1777 British General John Burgoyne set out to split the American colonies in two by marching from Montreal to Albany, planning to connect up with General Howe.

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/john-burgoyne-campaign-to-saratoga/

The militias were a constant harassing force all along the way, contributing to Burgoyne's decision to send troops to Bennington, Vermont.

The above is a picture taken by the author of a sign in Vermont.

The Battle of Bennington, Vermont, in 1770.

britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Benningt…

This was a defense against a regiment sent out by Burgoyne to collect horses and other supplies from Bennington, Vermont, and the surrounding area. The British were defeated by a militia made up of local people, and was only possible due to the existence of an armed populous. Burgoyne’s loss here contributed to his later defeat at Saratoga, in which militias also played a part.

battlefields.org/learn/articles/ten-fac…

This victory would have been impossible were it not for an armed citizenry.

Then there was the battle of kings mountain 1780

https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Kings-Mountain

The western flank of Cornwallis's army was commanded by Major Patrick Ferguson, and was made up around 1,000 Loyalist Americans. Ferguson had threatened the Americans in the region and called them nasty names. He threatened to cross the Blue Ridge Mountains and lay waste to the countryside there, and as they say, them's fighten words. A large number of American Militia men (read that as ordinary Americans, since all males were in the militia if they were fit and not too old or young) began searching for Ferguson and his men under the command of Colonel William Campbell, and found them at Kings Mountain in South Carolina. The Americans surrounded the ridge and could not be driven out by Ferguson's bayonet charges, eventually trapping Ferguson’s men them into a small area on the top of the mountain. Ferguson was shot while escaping on his horse, and the Americans captured all of the remaining survivors.

While no one can be certain, it seems unlikely that the Americans would have won without the militias, (or the French Navy).