Roles of Colonial Militia and Continental Army in Winning the Revolutio

Roles of Colonial Militia and Continental Army in Winning the Revolutionary War When the fighting at Lexington and Concord broke out in 1775, the conflict unleashed a flood of resentment that had been building over the right of the colonies to govern themselves. This conflict became a symbol of the American fight for "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." As James Kirby Martin and Mark Edward Lender argue in A Respectable Army: The Military Origins of the Republic, 1763-1789, the patriotic mythology of a united people fighting the tyrannical British oppressors for basic human rights permeated historical thought about the American Revolution until recently and obscured the inner conflicts that nearly destroyed the rebel effort (4). Martin and Lender maintain that the colonists did not develop a sense of national identity until after the Revolutionary War and that the lack of interest among the colonists in fighting for their cause prompted the use of the Continental Army to win the war. The authors also clearly regard the colonial militia with a great deal of contempt and spend a considerable amount of time discrediting them as an effective fighting force. There seems to be a fair amount of evidence, however, to indicate that some sense of nationhood existed prior to the Revolution, gaining momentum throughout the war but not firmly taking hold until after the war was over, and it was, in fact, the colonial militia that best exemplified that sense of nationalism. When the first settlers arrived in the New World, they attempted to transplant the European societal practices to which they were accustomed, but learned quickly that the wilderness of North America did not accommodate them. What resulted was the formati... ...had everything to lose and fought anyway better represented the national ideals for which they were fighting and it was for that reason that the public embraced them. The argument as to whether the colonial militia or the Continental Army deserves the most recognition in the war effort might never be settled. In some ways, the debate seems unnecessary. Winning the war combined more than just those two elements. If the French had not started a power struggle in Europe, the results would have been vastly different. If either the militia or the regulars had to fight the war alone, the results would have been vastly different. The laurels belong to no single group and should not be argued otherwise. Works Cited Martin, James Kirby, and Mark Edward Lender. A Respectable Army: The Military Origins of the Republic, 1763-1789. Wheeling, IL: Harlan Davidson, 1982.