What were the key events that led to the start of the American Revolution in 1775 ? Who were the militia and how were they organized ? How well prepared were the American colonists to take on the strongest military in the world at the time ? For answers to these questions and more army history insights . Stay tuned . Welcome to the US Army History and Heritage podcast , the official podcast of the United States Army Center of Military History . The Center of Military History writes and publishes the Army's official history , manages the US Army Museum Enterprise , and provides historical support throughout the US Army . Hello everyone and welcome to the United States Army History and Heritage podcast . I'm Lee Reynolds , the strategic communications officer for the Center of Military History . In this episode we're discussing the creation of the colonial militia and events that led to the start of the American Revolution through the convening of the First Continental Congress in 1774 . Joining me for this discussion is Army historian Joseph Seymour . Welcome , Joe . Hi Lee , it's really great to be here . Yeah , great having you here and uh I know you're an expert in the colonial era , the the red war , so I'm excited to get your insights on uh on these topics . But before we go there , just want to tell everyone a little bit about you . So Joe was born and raised in the Philadelphia area . He attended Lewis and Clark College , the Pennsylvania State University , the University of Edinburgh , and Temple University , earning a bachelor's and master's degree in history . While in Scotland , he served as an intern at the home headquarters of the Royal Scots dragoon Guards . He inventoried the regimental manuscript collection and learned about the British Army's regimental system . He also served in Troop A , first squadron of the 104th Cavalry Regiment , Pennsylvania Army National Guard , and worked as an Army historian since 2004 . His primary professional focus is on organizational history , the history and culture of the American soldier in the 18th century , and the evolution of small arms and tactics in that era . Representative works include the Pennsylvania Associators , 1747 to 1777 . Light the match load away the ordinance and organizational structure of the Philadelphia Artillery from 1747 to 1777 . American Society of Arms Collectors Bulletin . May June of 2006 and a chart showing the results of a 1779 Woolwich ballistic test military collector and historian in winter of 2013 . Well , that's a lot of work . You're , you definitely have the credibility , uh , uh , in , in , in this era . So Joe , you know , um , we've got the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution coming up , um . Uh , big anniversaries . But before we get into the revolution , we really have to address what got us there . So let's start by talking about how the military in the American colonies was organized at that time and was it the same throughout all the colonies ? Yeah , Lee , that's a really interesting question and what a lot of people think about the uh the colonial militia , of course they think about the , the rustic farmer laying the plow aside and taking up his muskets , uh , usually wearing , uh , his shirt sleeves and , and very little else , uh , but in , in fact , uh , the , the . Militia as we know it is a result of a legal mandates that go back to the 1100s and uh it is also the result of uh technical and tactical requirements uh on the part of uh of subjects and citizens . Uh , in the English speaking world dating back to that time in 1189 , uh , the seas or the law of arms of Henry the Second , uh , dictated , uh , that , uh , English subjects bear arms in defense of the of the realm , uh , subsequent , uh , ordinances , uh . Mandated , uh , not only the ownership of arms and of course in the 1100s we're talking about spears and swords , uh but also uh proficiency in their use . Uh , the famed English longbow wasn't just something that people kept to put food on the table , uh , but it was also a very powerful and advanced weapon that required years and years of training . And in order to uh ensure that England had uh large numbers of archers in in service uh various successive monarchs required not only the ownership of uh bow staves , yeah , that is the the bows themselves , uh , but proficiency in in their learning and so if you owned a home . You were not only required to be able to put an arrow into a target from as far away as 220 yards , uh , you were also required to raise your children , your young children were what they called in the law of the man child , uh , in their use and proficiency . It's a lot of fun to go through these old , uh , these old legal texts and ordinances you find . Uh interesting terminology , but you start to see this pattern . What were the ages that were required at that time ? Like , did you have to be 15 or older or you know , when would you be conscripted if needed ? Yeah , that's actually what I was just about to get to get to there , uh , yeah , I mean with the long bow you had to learn at a very much younger age , which is one of the reasons why by the 17th century , um . Uh , Matlock and flintlock muskets replaced , uh , items like the long bow . They required a lot less training , uh , and , uh , were , you know , were cheaper in terms of the , the labor required , uh , and the skill levels required , uh , although they . Required more , uh , more technology in terms of smelting metals and uh the use of flint and other other substances like gunpowder , uh , and by the by the 17th century when England began to colonize North America , uh , most laws on the books required training and as as a foot soldier , uh , the early colonial charters generally . Uh , all , all of them required that the subjects of the colonies provide defense for their colony or in the in the result of war , uh , in defense of the sovereign , uh , the king or or the queen as it were and . Generally speaking , all of these colonies had some sort of militia law on the books , all , all but all but one colony in fact had some sort of militia law on the books that mandated military service , and it was usually , uh , able-bodied males , uh , 16 or 18 was usually . The minimum age at which you had to turn out from malicious service and generally speaking , uh , 45 , 53 , 65 was usually the upper end . Now , uh , officers , most of their lives , yeah , most of the lives you were required to turn out for the militia , um . And it was something that uh that fathers passed down to son and that uh towns and counties now depending on how the colony was organized you uh it may it may have been a county requirement uh New England was uh structured around uh small towns , hamlets , townships , uh , and so the town was a very close knit community , uh , that required service so it was not only uh a military obligation . But a social obligation and soldiers were were required to show proficiency uh in their arms and uh as I said , uh , all but one colony had mandatory service uh on its books . Uh one colony , uh , Maryland actually uh required women to possess arms if they were . The the head of a household . Oh , OK , so the idea was , uh , it was , it was considered something that cost money and time and uh now that women did not turn out for malicious service , but they were required to bear arms , at least keep them let's not say keep keep arms , but bearing arms was something different . So again these these laws are interesting because they , they play out into the modern time . And so you talked a lot about the uh the homes , the communities . So how were they organized was was one community a company or a platoon , you know , if they use those terms back then . Yeah , yeah , that's a good question . They did use the terms company and platoon . Uh some of the terms were used a little differently , but uh but a lot of um modern soldiers would would see a lot of parallels to what we do today . Uh , generally speaking , there were um . There were a few different types of colonies and how they were legally structured , uh , had a lot to do with how their militia was structured now . Um , in a country in a colony like , uh , Virginia for example , the militia was based , uh , around the county , uh , so you would have a county regiment , uh , and then various companies because it was a very decentralized population that various , uh , companies would be assigned there and now Massachusetts had a very high population , a very densely , uh , settled population , uh , and also a very rigorously structured government , um . So their uh their militia was structured around the town . In fact , we talk about town companies in New England , uh , and in 1636 , the town companies of Massachusetts were all , uh , were all consolidated into regiments the north . The South and the East Regiment , the North regiment , uh , being the area of , uh , Boston and uh Middlesex County , the South Regiment being , uh , what we call Suffolk County , and then the East Regiment , uh , being Essex County up around , uh , Newburyport , Cape Ann area . And so within , so within the the militia structure you also had a very well structured uh tactical formation so you had regimental colonels you had regimental staff you had captains of town companies . Now , a large , a small town , uh , say for example , like , oh there was a little town in Middlesex County called Lexington that had , uh , that would maybe only have one or two companies , whereas a bigger town like Concord nearby , uh , the county seat had , uh , had , uh , you know , had more companies , it varied and then Boston would have more companies still and uh now . Militia service , um , you know , milicious service was compulsory and the , uh , and you had , you had to turn out , so you also had more , uh , elite structures , especially in areas like , uh , Boston or Newport , Rhode Island , New Haven , Connecticut but let's let's focus a little bit on Massachusetts now , uh , where you would have a volunteer , uh , militia organizations , uh , that would , uh . That would , uh , you know , have more , more structure , more equipment , uniforms , uh , colors , uh , all of the trappings of a uh of a of a regular uh organization and many of Boston's elites like , uh , John Hancock for example who was considered . I think if not the richest , one of the richest men in in Massachusetts , uh , they would belong to these organizations . Uh , John , uh , Henry Knox belonged to a , uh , he belonged to a militia organization . He was a bookseller but also belonged to a militia organization , you know , when I think of , of , um , comparison to today , you know , so I was , I was active duty in the army but I was also a reservist for , for many years . Our obligation was 1 weekend a month , 2 weeks annually . How did that compare to the militia back then ? Well , it varied , uh , sometimes , uh , it depending on , uh , basically the distance that you were from the military threat , uh , it could be as infrequently as once a year though most colonies , uh , had at least a quarter quarterly muster , and in Massachusetts , uh , where wars were frequent and the military threat was was constant , it could be as uh . As frequently as once a month or as uh tensions grew over uh the various suppressive acts of of uh the British ministry uh it could become very frequent and it again it it varied . Well , let's talk about how these militia were put into action . um let's the French and Indian War I think is a good example um uh so talk about how they were mobilized to fight that war . Yeah , sure , and again , uh , a lot of people tend to lump the militia into a lot of other military organizations that existed uh in the colonies now uh during various , uh , you know , during the various colonial wars , uh , and of course in Boston these these wars , um . They , uh , you know , they started as early as the 1630s , the Pequot War , later King Philip's War , um . Occasionally you would have the militia called into service . Now in the early years , it would be the town militia . Mhm . Uh , would be , uh , ordered into service by the general courts , which was the legislature of Massachusetts General Court would order the militia into service . Uh , then , uh , later it was found by the 1750s , say the , the seven Years' War , French war , French and Indian Wars , it's called variously , uh , by that period you had , uh , they understood that there was a shortcoming in calling a militia up constantly now , uh . That calling up militia constantly put a great deal of stress on these communities uh to uh engage in their agricultural and manufacturing uh it took uh it put pressure on shipping . New England was very highly dependent on the maritime trade , not only for commerce , but , uh , you know , trade various places around the around the British Empire , but also , uh , for fishing were were relying on fishing , uh , so what . New England , uh , the other colonies determined was that out of these militia organizations they could raise levies for provincial servants . Uh , now levies might be for a contingency operation such as , uh , the expedition to Lewisburg , uh , in 1745-1746 where elements of New England militia went under , um , Sir William Pepperell , um . And William Shirley against uh the the French fortress in um in the Maritimes or uh and and then they would serve temporarily and return to service or uh another solution was to raise uh . Provincial regiments for service , for example , at Fort uh at Crown Point Fort Ticonda Rogue on Lake Champlain and Lake George , uh , these were . Soldiers serving for a fixed term of service and they would start to look very much like our modern reserve or National Guard and they they were very much uh full-time soldiers , uh , paid regularly , uh , often uniformed and equipped and uh serving . Alongside regulars serving in auxiliary roles , what we would call force protection , uh , or , uh , doing , you know , doing patrolling or guarding supply trains and things like that , uh , which made a lot of sense because you could take the uh the fully trained long serving regulars and have them . Performing the job of uh you know performing the actual um instruments of policy , you know , going out and fighting uh French regulars and their allies , uh , other , other provincials would uh would would follow suit . uh , Massachusetts had a great deal of success with the so-called snowshoeman . Uh , we often talk about colonial Rangers . Now there's one very famous , uh , organization of colonial Rangers , Rogers Rangers , but there were many others , uh , to Range , uh , was a , we think now of Rangers as , uh , contingency , uh , soldiers , uh , deep penetrating raids , uh , that sort of things , and Rangers did . Occasionally do that sort of work , but to range meant uh to uh simply range uh patrol between fortified strong points . Uh , this is a this is a concept that actually started in Ireland in the 17th century and was brought over here and so rangers would , you know , you'd have these forts out on the frontier and they'd be separated by 10 or 20 miles . Well , if . You're a Canadian raider , it's real obvious you just pick one that's isolated , rate it , and before anybody knows it , they're not gonna have time to , to react , whereas if there are rangers who are always in motion between the forts , you can provide a lot more security . So hey , oh , you hear shots popping off a few miles away , you can easily spread the alarm . You know , you think about , uh , you know , they would have big signal beacons of flames that would go up or guns , signal guns , uh , that sort of thing , bells , and that's gonna play out the Battle of Lexington . So out of some of these colonial wars , the ven Years' War , um , French Indian War , um , a lot of the , uh , the people who would , um , serve in the revolutionary War and some of our leaders . We're taking , taking part in those . So talk a little bit about how those wars were really a training ground for command . Yeah , without a doubt , without a doubt , uh , and when you look at the resumes of our revolutionary war leaders . It is almost . Almost to a man they had some sort of prior service as we say in the military , uh , the of course at the top you've got George Washington uh he was at , uh , Fort Necessity , uh , in July of 1754 . He was with Braddock actually he was at Braddock's side when he was mortally wounded at the Battle of Bongahela on 9 July 1755 as was . Major General Thomas Gauge , who was the commander in chief of British forces in North America . So , uh , Thomas Gauge was absolutely no stranger to American military talent , but that's as an aside , I guess , yeah . So these , they , if they never met , it might be odd . So there's this idea that , you know , uh . Uh , Horatio Gates , uh , uh , Arthur Sinclair , uh , and even , even down at the , even down at the lower end , Israel Putnam . Of Massachusetts was a , I'm sorry he wasn't a Massachusetts man uh but Israel Putnam , uh , was a , you know , he had been he had been a ranger in colonial period . So these were old soldiers , a lot of them , uh , William Heath , uh , and , uh , but even soldiers who had seen no action like John Parker of Lexington , you know , had served in the militia for a very long . Period of time . So , uh , and the period of especially 1755 to 1759 was a watershed of new ideas , new tactical concepts coming into the British Army , and you had some real leadership in the British army , some really famous generals , and they were famous for a reason . They were highly competent , highly talented leaders . Uh , Lord George Howe , uh , Sir William Howe's older brother , uh , was a great friend of the colonists . He was killed right before , uh , the , uh , failed attempt on Fort Carrion , which was later Fort Ticonderoga in 1758 , uh , but he also , he was a man who appreciated the work of American colonial rangers , uh , such as Robert Rogers , and , uh , this was also the time when the British were learning . To use uh Highland troops , light infantry , William Howe led light infantry , as did Thomas Gauge during the , uh , during the seven Years' War , and American soldiers were seeing this happen . Hey , we can , we can leave our baggage train behind . We can pack it on our backs . uh , we can , uh , we're not going to rely , uh , on cold steel bayonet charges . Uh , we can carry hatchets we can , uh , we can rely more , uh , on our musket tree . Uh , we can , uh , we can , you know , walk in single file so that we're harder to track . We can , uh , we can learn to sleep on the ground , a lot of things that , uh , modern American soldiers really take for granted , uh , was coming into was uh coming into its own at the time . So , uh , and , and also . 1755 is the real real start off of the um of the of the French and Indian War , that's only 20 years before , um . Uh , Lexington . And so when you think , OK , uh , you know , we all , we can look around the room and say , OK , so , uh , uh . A soldier who's still in his prime . In at 45 years old , say , like George Washington was a soldier in his prime in 1755 , was a young a young soldier at that time and had learned through this . So I would say definitely as a , uh , as a schoolhouse , as a military schoolhouse , uh , the seven Years' War in America was , uh , was , was very significant . I , I , I , I think I rambled a bit , but no , no , that was good , uh , great information . And uh so now moving forward , uh we have the uh I guess in order to pay for the French and Indian War , uh Britain the parliament took some action so if you wanna talk about that , so I , I did talk about a lot of the cost that the uh the colonists , um , that the colonists undertook to uh fight the uh . Like the colonial wars and then full disclosure , I'm um I'm I'm an unabashed fan of the continentals , I'm not a . Secretly sympathize . I like the English people , but I'm an American . The the war for Empire , the seven Years' War was a brilliant conflict . Uh , William Pitt was a , uh , was a talented one of the great prime ministers of , of , of Great Britain . And uh you know uh James Wolf , the great general at Quebec , uh , fought a global war against Great Britain's enemies in coalition with uh Prussia and other countries . Uh , this came at enormous cost and in the aftermath of the . Uh , of the victory , the peace of Paris ended the Seven Years' War in 1763 and in the aftermath of that , uh . Great Britain , to put it lightly , had a lot of bills to pay , uh , not just financial , but political . And so to do so , uh , England had a England , Great Britain had a vast new empire . uh , they had , um , finally once and for all conquered uh New France , uh , and the French for the most part it said , OK , that's over as long as we keep some lucrative islands in the Caribbean and fishing rights on the Grand Banks we're OK , um . Though they harbored a lot of desire for revenge , uh , so that would require an army to patrol this new , this new force and that would also require , uh , just simply paying off debts , paying off of all those contractors and commissaries and other things . Uh , so to do so . Uh , parliament said , well , you know , these are just uh colonists somewhere . They , you know , these , these colonies are here to provide income for the empire . So why don't we tax these people who are here now . Couple of things going on here . One is that the , uh , great , uh , commoner as he was called , uh , Sir William Pitt was no longer , uh , running things . Uh , he liked Americans , he understood Americans and Americans understood him , which is why we have so many towns named Pitt , uh , Pittsburgh being probably the most prominent , but Pittsfield in Massachusetts , and if you , if you look around you'll see them . Uh , so he's gone and the new ministry as well , OK , these , these are just common people , they're nothing to us , so let's tax them . And they won't mind because we'll we'll tax . Manufactured items that , you know , luxury items , things like that , they won't really see the tax . Well . These people hadn't been to . Uh , they hadn't been to the American colonies . They hadn't seen , uh , our colleges and universities . They hadn't , uh , seen places like Harvard and they hadn't seen New York City and they , uh , didn't see the great deal of sophistication that was in American society and they certainly hadn't come up against the likes of people like . John Hancock and John Adams , Samuel Adams , and they had met . Benjamin Franklin , but um they hadn't really seen what he could do yet and so they just didn't understand that Americans thought a great deal about law and philosophy and government and so when they imposed a series of duties on various items iron , paper , glass . Uh , paint pigments , uh , the list goes on and on , and of course , the tea tax . Uh , more on that in a minute . They just didn't understand what the backlash was going to be and as I've , I think I've already alluded to Americans felt members of a of an empire . Americans were proud to be a member , members of the empire . Americans fired salutes . They put up statues to King George the Third . They named towns after William Pitt and . James Wolf and Admiral Warren and we're British and proudly British and now you are gonna make us pay . Well , we have assemblies , right ? We do tax ourselves and we did . Bear the burden of the war and here you are treating us like we do nothing . So these are additional taxes over and above what they're already paying to the local governments here in the in the colonies at the time . People paid their taxes , people served in the militia . Uh , if you missed , if you skipped drill , you got fined . So it wasn't that they were just opposed to taxes in general , they were opposed to paying these new additional taxes . Which are going to put a heavy burden on them . Yeah , that's a very good point , Lee , people often , well , they just didn't want to pay tax . No , they were willing to pay their taxes and they were certainly showed that they were willing to pay their fair share . So these led to a lot of resentment now growing resentment within the colonies and um you know we all , we've all heard of the Boston massacre . Yeah , so I think this led to that . So talk a little bit about that . What happened there and how . Um , what was the impact it had on the growing resistance ? Yeah , that's , that's , that's a really important , um , so , uh , March of 1770 there were , uh , British troops in Boston , uh enforcing , uh , tax duties , and , uh , they were serving far from home , uh , under equipped , poorly equipped , they were , um . Wearing a mixed match of older uniform parts , newer uniform parts , um , every soldier can identify with that and , uh , one very cold night as we can imagine , uh , what mess what Boston's like in March , uh . There were . There was a guard post uh guarding the customs house uh in Boston and uh it started the way many things like of this sort starts , uh , some boys were . Taunting British soldiers and throwing slush balls at them , uh , and just to skip to skip ahead there are no there's there's a whole lot of detail . I could take an hour to tell all the details and the back and forth . But it's all due to the growing resentment it's due to the growing resentment and eventually a large crowd formed and . The uh British captain , the captain of the guard was called Captain Preston was called in . He tried to restore order . Uh , no one's ever really gonna be sure exactly what happened , but again , more on that in a minute . The , uh , before , before anyone really knew , uh , the British soldiers fired into the crowd , uh , the crowd was getting close , the crowd was getting ugly , um . You know , sticks and stones were flying , uh , and , uh , and so the soldiers responded with musketry and , uh , several Bostonians lay dead , um . And this absolutely galvanized uh Bostonians and the word spread through the colonies of uh this bloody massacre was called a young leader of the resistance uh by the name of Paul Revere who was in his own right a renowned silversmith , uh . Did a an engraving uh for the massacre that occurred that appeared in Boston papers we've seen these uh and this is also a really important time to note that the the information campaign uh was something that the Americans had very well in hand . Uh , one of the biggest printers uh and a newspaper printer , a printer was somebody who could . Was more than just a newspaper printer . He was somebody who did all sorts of information technology , uh , so it was he also controlled how news got around . Uh , one of the biggest of course was uh was uh Benjamin Franklin who had retired from the business , by the way , um , but there was a there was a whole network . Uh , including his , his brother in Boston , uh , and so the means by which information could flow throughout the colonies , uh , was , um . Was very rapid , uh , and also , uh , occurred in many different ways . So the , the leadership could could correspond by by letter people could read uh newspapers or have them read to them if they could not read . uh , taverns were meeting places uh many of the of the leaders of the resistance were uh were tradesmen and masons . Like uh Paul Revere , and so they could easily move in quiet circles and secret circles uh among the taverns uh and and and get this information out and they could also shape the way information was relayed so they could put their own spin on uh on this event . So Americans uh who Had lingering opinions of of the regulars to begin with , some of them good , some of them bad . I'm not gonna say that it was all negative , uh , but they saw they saw these , um , these people as oppressive and um . This may not have been the case in a place like Philadelphia , but it was something that now galvanized people that the that the ministry . And the crown was willing to use force in something that was really an English tradition of protesting by well we're gonna throw rocks at you or we're gonna tar and feather you uh that's , that's very English actually , uh , going back to , you know , going back to the resistance , the great legend of you thought I wasn't done with longbows , but the great legend of , uh , of , uh . Of um Robin Hood . So this idea that , you know , it's , it's , but this is now word's getting throughout all the colonies , so it's not just Boston or Massachusetts that's getting the the resentment now . Now it's starting spreading spreading there and you've got committees of correspondence . Various , you know , all down , you know , down into , you know , from , from Boston to New Haven to , uh , Newport to New York to Princeton to Philadelphia , Williamsburg , uh , don't forget the lower colonies in Delaware all the way down you've got concerned , uh . Prominent people who read who are saying this is not who we are this is we have the rule of law we don't do this and we're going to we're going to now have committees of correspondence where we're gonna share ideas about how we should resist OK how . should resist did this impact the militias at all ? Absolutely . uh and uh you know , one of the one of the things is that the militia is the nation in arms . It's a single entity and it's , it's a legal requirement . So you had militia organizations throughout the colonies . Now this is 1770 , so it's not , it's 11 isolated incident at this point , but . Within , within 2 years , you're going to have the Gass Bay incident within and then you're going to have , um , you're going to have an you're going to have um . Escalation but what first happens is Britain slowly has been repealing these various taxes . So there's a sense on the ministry's part saying , OK , we've gone a little too far with this . And really . It's still , it's not a , it's not a building tidy yet , right ? Uh , now what does also come out of . The Boston Massacre . Is that The soldiers . Are charged with murder . British soldiers , right ? And they are tried in a Massachusetts court . Now if you're a British soldier who's used to getting spit on and having rocks thrown at them , how do you think you're gonna be treated in a Boston court ? Yeah right so . A very young hotshot lawyer by the name of John Adams represents the regulars now he did fairly well . um , he didn't get them off for nothing . Two of them were convicted of manslaughter and branded uh it's the way we did things back then we , um , cruel and unusual punishment was a little different , but they were branded for manslaughter but . They were not all railroaded as we would say now back then no one said that but they were not it was not a drumhead court . It was a court of law and they were found . Several were acquitted and some were some were convicted and what it showed to these committees of correspondence that this is a country , this is a rule of law and . Adams had a very Adams was not pro-British uh but he was , but he believed in in this pro law so the idea is this this growing idea of what is our authority and you asked about what it does to the militia is the militia as I said is a legal mandate . You are legally required to serve and so . There's this idea that . This is a this is a legal uh resistance . It is not , as you said , people just not wanting to pay their taxes . It's not , um , well , we just don't want to do what the British want to do . This is we are in the right . We are upholding the law . It is the . ministry that is not . So as I said , what comes out is a is a period of de-escalation . But you said they started repealing a lot of the taxes . But the one tax that they didn't was what was what the tax . And there's there's a sense here of . OK , we'll repeal all the taxes . But 11 little measly tax and this was done in part to prop up the failing East India Company . Uh , it was , it was , uh , the tax was imposed . OK , we're going to subsidize the East India Company . We're going to give these pesky Americans . Tack uh the . Tea that is cheaper than they're gonna get anywhere else so they can drink all the tea they want , get all riled up , they're getting it at cheaper price . So again , the British are saying , oh this is just about money and but we're going to impose this one little tax on tea . And Americans . Didn't buy it . They didn't buy the tax , and their response was , we're not going to buy the tea . Uh , The idea was if the tea was landed . Wasn't the idea , this is the way duties work . You land your you you land your tea you pay you pay the import duty . Well , once the import duty is paid , the tax is paid and then it is passed on to the consumers . Well , if the tea is landed , the tax is paid if the T is not landed . Right . So how do we keep the ships from landing the tea now , uh , in some places the tea was burned and this is a , there are a number of what we call tea parties . Tea party sort of a later throughout the colonies just focused in but the big one , the first one , the important one , the , the ships that were sailing to Philadelphia turned around . They , they negotiated with the owners and said just turn around . Uh , but in Boston they were . They , they were sitting in the harbor 3 ships and so on the night . Of 16 December 1773 . A mysterious party . Of Indians . Descended on Boston Harbor . And threw the tea overboard . They did not steal it . Stealing would have been theft would have been an act of a criminal act . They did not . Damage the ships . They only took the tea out of the chests and threw it into the harbor . Now of course these were simply disguised Sons of liberty they called the resistance groups , uh , and they were probably include some people that later became famous . Uh , we do know the names of a few of those uh of those members , and they , they were just young , young revolutionaries and now this . Again , when news arrived . In London of this destruction of the tea as it was called the time or what we now call the Tea Party , uh , the response was swift and severe . Mhm . Yeah , and how did it impact the uh the militia ? This is really where you start to see uh a real uptick in not only in um in the militia but also in its political arms as well . Um , the , the first , the the what the British now do is they pass a series of acts , um . To punish and to repay the tea that was lost , and Americans responded to these acts which were severe . It was basically the imposition of martial law , the arrival of British regiments , uh , into the intolerable , coercive acts , the intolerable acts . We're going to close the port of Boston . Now think about that for a minute . I'm getting to your question , you know , think about the , the closure of the Boston port . Um , Boston is relies the port is Boston's lifeblood . You're basically trying to starve the city , throwing everybody out of work , and including young men of military age , uh , we're going to , uh , we're going to take any . Offenses that are committed by British officials , British soldiers , we're going to try them in England . The administrator shouldn't of Justice Act , even though Americans had shown that you could get a fair trial in New England . Uh , we're going to take the , we're going to take the Massachusetts government . We're going to dissolve the general court , and we're going to place a military governor in charge , Thomas Gauge . Um , And so what these acts essentially did was they placed Massachusetts under martial law . They took away its charter . They took away its government , uh , essential rights . They quartered British soldiers on people , uh , in people's homes , you know , you , so as British sergeant's gonna come live with you and you can barely even understand them . He can't understand you , uh . And so this is an absolute outrage . Now all of these people that are thinking about law and justice and philosophy are now saying they that's gone and so . And so what you have is throughout New England but also throughout the colonies now you have uh training and organization and reorganization of existing militia uh that is now taken up in earnest . Yeah , and with the um State of emergency if you will that was in Massachusetts and through some of the other colonies um there were shadow governments now popping up which which eventually so you have shadow state governments but now there's a consolidation of all 13 colonies or I think they tried others as well but um so this this leads to the continental Congress , yeah this is the . The Mass Massachusetts formed a provisional government , uh , and the , the government meant in the biggest nearby city or town rather uh in Concord , uh , and which is what , about 1820 miles outside of Boston , about 20 miles , about 20 miles , um . And so we're going to now as , as , as Massachusetts Bay Staters we're going to say or Bay it wasn't state yet but Massachusetts Bay people we're going to , uh , now we're going to have our own government because we the one that exists is not . Legitimate . It is not legal . Uh , in other colonies , uh , throughout 1774 , uh , revolutionary committees , uh , the committees of correspondence now grow into revolutionary committees . They hold elections and they elect new representatives , uh , to their , uh , to their assemblies in Pennsylvania in 1774 , uh , new political novices , um , they'd never held office before and now swept into government , um . In some places the the the royal government's held on uh and were swept out uh you know you have uh in in uh Virginia and New York uh in other places and one in at least one colony , uh , Connecticut , the royal governor . Jonathan Trumbull goes along with the revolution . So yeah , that's an interesting story . Yeah , he says , no , I'm one of you guys . So , so yeah , there's a , there's , and so now you have these What had been committees of of of correspondence , but they are elected for the most part . These are , uh , you know , George Washington is an elected Burgess . Uh , so again , there's legitimacy here , um , but they are now , they are now running , you know , you could call , yeah , to shadow , they're shadowing um what what's going on and , and they are now , uh . They , they are now becoming in the in in their eyes and in the eyes of many of their supporters . They are the duly legitimate government and that the it's this is about legality and about status . By the end of 1774 or thereabouts just to describe . State of readiness , the weapons , um , the tactics of the militia , yeah , absolutely . Well , again , uh , because there is a long uh militia , um , tradition and service , uh , there were a lot of people that knew what they were doing , uh , and so one of the things I , you know , I'll throughout the colonies there is a there is an arms race , but I'm just going up , let me focus on Massachusetts . The provisional government in Massachusetts does start to gather and collect arms , um . They start to , um , there's . Small but growing uh capability to produce arms but it's mostly taking uh surplus arms . There were a lot of surplus arms left over , uh , from the French and India where there was a requirement to , uh , own and possess , uh , a musket , but also you had artillery companies , uh , throughout the throughout the colony , uh . Uh , gunpowder which had to be brought in from abroad was a high commodity and so , uh , there is , uh , so the , the , the revolutionaries are stockpiling one of the big stockpile , one of the big areas to do it is at , uh , is in Concord , um , militia companies and regiments are now stepping up their training . Uh , it is now , um , much more frequent throughout the winter of 1774 . Uh , they have authorized minute companies . OK , so this is the first we're hearing of these , these minute companies or what would become men . Yeah , now the , the tradition , as I said goes back , but so the idea of having , having these , um , younger , you know , 18 to 35 year old soldiers uh who are . Um , what we would call rapid reaction force . So they , they can , they can turn out in a minute's notice , maybe not quite that , but the idea is that they can , they can turn out quickly and so , OK , if there's an alarm , and I talked about that with the old ranging companies , you know , OK , the British are going after , and they did , the British raided Salem , what's called the powder alarm . There was a stockpile there , the British raided . The militia did not react fast enough and so the British were successfully it's not going to happen again . If there's an alarm , uh , if the , if the regulars march , we're going to have a system of signaling from Boston , uh , where they're all . Concentrated and if they , if they march out or come out or go out in in boats , uh the British were good at amphibious operations if we do that we're going to have an alarm system and an early warning system and these minute men will be uh will be equipped . You know , they've got their muskets or bayonets , their knapsacks first line of defense . And so they are , and they're they're the youngest , the most agile , they're the ones who have who have the most frequent training , and they will be able to get out first until the battalions and regiments can turn out to find them . Would you consider them officially part of the militia ? Oh , so they're select soldiers within . Uh , the militia , they're not separate . They're just , they're integrated into the communities . They're not living in barracks or things . And one other question you mentioned Sons of Liberty earlier . Was that part of the militia or was that more of a political action group ? How would you define them ? Yes . OK , so it's kind of both , uh Sons of Liberty were , yes , they were political action groups , um , but many members of the revolutionary , uh , leadership , uh , so you , you would have the political committees , the revolutionary committees within town . Uh , and , and this is why , why the revolution is so successful is it is you have a political structure that is also , that also has a military structure . As I said , uh , you know , Joseph Warren , who's a leader of the um . He's a leader of the of the revolution also comes out as a volunteer soldier and and he's nominally got a rank of a general but he never assumed that rank because he knew I'm a doctor . Um , but , but the idea was you you could be a leading revolutionary as George Washington . Was a member of the continental Congress but also a soldier . Well , Joe , uh , this has been fascinating but we're gonna have to start wrapping this up but before we close , it's time for our segment that we normally call who a trivia , but since this is revolutionary War talk , it's huzzah trivia . So do you have a piece of trivia that you can share with us about the militia prior to the American Revolution ? Sure , uh , on that fateful morning . The red coats that marched to Washington . We're volunteers . But the militia were conscripts . So there's a difference , just quickly , what is the difference ? Well , conscript is there because they have mandatory service they were called out by their committees and the British British regulars were . Almost always volunteers at this point . All right , well good well thank you so much , uh , Joe , this has been fascinating , a lot of great information here , especially seeing how our American army that would get established in 1775 , um , is developing through the years and what led up to the start of hostilities , uh , in 1775 for the American Revolution . So thank you for your insights today about the history of the militia and the events that led to the American Revolution . And if anyone wants to learn more about this challenging time in American military history and the American Revolution or learn more about army history in general , that I encourage you to explore our website at history.army.mil and we have a new website that's uh you can access from our main one website that's specifically dedicated to the American army in the uh in the Revolutionary War . Also we have a series of new pamphlets that are uh coming out . They're all a lot of them are already released and the information we're talking about today is in our first pamphlet called Opening Shots so I'd highly encourage you to check that out . And if you want to learn more or experience army history every day then visit our social media sites on Facebook , Twitter X and Instagram . So thanks for joining us today on the United States Army History and Heritage podcast for the center of military history , I'm Lee Reynolds , and until next time . We're history . The views expressed in this podcast reflect those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views , policies , or opinions of the US Army or Department of Defense . For more information about the Army's proud history and heritage , go to history.army.mil .