Front cover image for A rabble in arms : Massachusetts towns and militiamen during King Philip's War

A rabble in arms : Massachusetts towns and militiamen during King Philip's War

"While it lasted only sixteen months, King Philip's War (1675-1676) was arguable one of the most significant of the colonial wars that wracked early America. As the first major military crisis to directly strike one of the British Empire's most important possessions, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, King Philip's War marked the first time that Massachusetts had to mobilize mass numbers of ordinary men to fight. In this ... social history and community study of Essex County, Massachusetts's militia, Kyle F. Zelner boldly challenges traditional interpretations of who was called to serve during this period. Drawing on muster rolls and pay lists as well as numerous historical records, Zelner demonstrates that Essex County's more upstanding citizens, such as yeomen farmers, church members, and family heads were often spared from impressments, while "the rabble"--Criminals, drunkards, the poor -- were forced to join active fighting units, with town militia committees selecting soldiers who would be least missed should they die in action ... [this monograph] shows that, despite heroic illusions of a universal military obligation, town fathers, to damaging effects, often placed local and personal interests above colonial military concerns"--Fly leaf
Print Book, English, ©2009
New York University Press, New York, ©2009
History
xv, 325 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
9780814797181, 9780814797341, 9780814797228, 0814797180, 0814797342, 0814797229
265739453
1. "For the best ordering of the militia": English military precedent and the early Massachusetts Bay Militia
2. The Massachusetts Bay Militia and the practice of impressment during King Philip's War
3. Many men, many choices: Impressment in Essex County's thriving towns
4. Few men, few options: Impressment in Essex County's small towns
5. The pressed men of Essex County: The social identity of the soldiers of King Philip's War
6. The effects of impressment: War and peace in Essex County
Afterword: The military of Massachusetts Bay transformed
Appendix 1. The soldiers of Essex County in King Philip's War, 1675-1676
Appendix 2. Rowley's 1662 Tax List: Ranked by family with soldiers' families highlighted
Appendix 3. Topsfield's 1668 Tax List: Ranked by family with soldiers' families highlighted
Appendix 4. An examination of the age of Essex County soldiers and officers in King Philip's War, 1675-1676