[Ret10Echo]

As conversations on "Militia" continue and the government of the Commonwealth of Virginia takes a hard left turn... I thought this interesting.


“It is most certain that men may be smartly dressed, keep their arms bright, be called [British] regulars, be expert in all the antics of a review and yet be unfit for real action. It is equally certain, that a militia [in America], by confining themselves to essentials, by a simplification of the necessary maneuvers, may become, in a very few months, a most formidable infantry. The yeomanry of America have, besides, infinite advantages over the peasantry of other countries; they are accustomed from their infancy to fire arms; they are expert in the use of them; whereas the lower and middle people of England are, by the tyranny of certain laws, almost as ignorant in the use of a musket as they are of the ancient Catapulta.”


Major General Charles Lee,“Strictures on a Pamphlet . . . Addressed to the People of America” (Philadelphia, 1774)