Suggested Books, Articles, Etc. on America’s Early Militia

by Lane155

What are some good books, articles, or other resources that discuss America’s early militia (militia that were used during the American Revolution and perhaps a few decades after). I have become much more interested in the topic after visiting the Museum of the American Revolution, in Philadelphia. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Bodark43

I would suggest taking a look at M. L Brown's Firearms in Colonial America . Its secondary source references are not always good, but it does also make use of a lot of primary material. Although it is dealing with foreign armies and hunters, of course, there's a good bit there on Committees of Safety and militias. But these units often would be created rather quickly and also could disappear when they had little use ( the Armory in Williamsburg seem to have suffered from periodic neglect throughout the colonial period) so although this is not something I have deeply dug into, do not be surprised if records of specific units are incomplete. Some of the staff at Old Sturbridge Village have re-enacted a militia unit for a number of years, and there's an exhibit there now: but the last time I checked they had not been able to find an actual period portrait of such a unit and so have been doing a lot of educated guessing about uniforms, etc