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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (945847)	7/8/2016 8:24:06 PM
From: longnshort	2 Recommendations Recommended By FJB Stock Puppy Respond to of 1576179

"For every other action after the Revolutionary War, the militias were useless." really The Battle of Gettysburg is considered to be the turning point of the Civil War. One episode, which helped turn the tide, involved the militia from Maine. Josua L. Chamberlain, a former professor at Maine's Bowdoin College, commanded the 20th Maine Volunteer Militia. Organized in the Maine Volunteer Militia in August 1862, the 20th Maine mustered into Federal service several weeks later. The 20th was ordered to hold critical terrain between Big and Little Round Top at all cost. They held off six attacks by determined Alabama regiments. Chamberlain knew his men didn't have the ammunition to fight off a seventh attack. So he ordered his men to "Fix bayonets!" and charge downhill. The assault stopped the Confederate threat to the Union flank and contributed mightily to an important Union victory. Joshua Chamberlain was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1893 for this action. Almost two years later, Brevet Major General Chamberlain, chosen to accept the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, ordered Union troops to present arms to their former enemy as a mark of respect. The heritage of the 20th Maine is carried on today by the 133d Engineer Battalion, Maine Army National Guard.

To: combjelly who wrote (945847)	7/8/2016 8:25:21 PM
From: longnshort	1 Recommendation Recommended By FJB Respond to of 1576179

State militia were called out by State governments to preserve order. For instance, during the early summer of 1862 a movement was set on foot by the enemies of the Government having for its object the systematic organization of guerrilla hands throughout the State of Missouri. This movement became so formidable that it was determined by the State authorities to take stringent measures for the suppression of existing disorders. Accordingly Brig. Gen. John M. Schofield, the commander of the Missouri State Militia and also the United States military commander of the District of Missouri, was authorized to organize the entire militia force of the State for the purpose of putting down marauders and defending the peaceable citizens of the State. On July 22, 1862, pursuant to the authority thus conferred upon him, General Schofield issued the following: "An immediate organization of all the militia of Missouri is hereby ordered, for the purpose of exterminating the guerrillas that infest our State. Every able-bodied man capable of bearing arms and subject to military duty is hereby ordered to repair, without delay, to the nearest military post and report for duty to the commanding officer. Every man will bring with him whatever arms he may have or can procure, and a good horse if he has one. All arms and ammunition of whatever kind and wherever found, not in the hands of the loyal militia, will be taken possession of by the latter and used for the public defense. Those who have no arms and can not procure them in the above manner will be supplied as quickly as possible by the ordnance department."

To: combjelly who wrote (945847)	7/15/2016 12:55:55 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576179

Milita were useful beyond Lexington and Concord. A large part of their use was outside of set piece battles. They controlled the territory any time a sizable British armed force wasn't present, they observed the movements of British forces, and hampered supply and movement. But they were useful in battle as well. Their fighting ability in a pitched battle was mixed not uniformly bad. For example militia played an important role at Saratoga, and Kings Mountain was a victory by an outnumbered purely militia force over an enemy force that started off owning the high ground. The US was a brand new country. It didn't have existing regulars. The Continental army drew in many militia members. Even those that had no previous militia experience were not mostly career soldiers, they were ordinary people pulled out of civilian life for short periods of enlistment (at least until the 1780s) The 2nd Amendment expressly states that it is for a well-regulated militia that the right to bear arms exists "Expressly" goes a bit to far, but it does provide the militia as the justification. Note nothing about "federal control" in that justifying clause (and the militia at the time were not under federal control, but rather state or even local control.) However justification is not limitation. Nothing in the amendment limits it to milita members. Beyond that the militia at the time were ordinary people with their own arms, initially with no connection to the state at all other then as citizens of the state. The militia today is also not primarily a state force. The "reserve milita" consists of every able bodied man between 17 and 45 who isn't part of the armed forces (including reserve components of those forces), except a few minor exceptions (the president, the VP, members of the judiciary, senior executive branch people in the US government and governments of states and territories, Persons employed by the United States in the transmission of mail, Workmen employed in armories, arsenals, and naval shipyards of the United States, Pilots on navigable waters, Mariners in the sea service of a citizen of, or a merchant in, the United States" See en.wikipedia.org ) The exceptions (which include me since I'm over 45, and included all women not in the organized militia), don't really matter a lot though since the right is not the right of militia members but rather the right of the people.