A Well Regulated Militia: Citizen, Soldier, and State (review)

Abstract

A Well Regulated Militia: Citizen, Soldier, and State is a temporary exhibit in the lower level of the Mars Education Center at Fort Ticonderoga. The exhibit, according to the museum’s web description, “explores this often misunderstood institution from its formation in the colonial period through its decline in the early 19th century.”1 The exhibit revolves around a small, yet impressive, sampling of Ticonderoga’s vast collections of militaria and offers many items of interest for the devoted military history enthusiast. The content is thoroughly researched, and the artifacts are attractively displayed, confirming the Fort’s adeptness at engaging visitors with historical material culture. The exhibit offers visitors an examination of the militia’s European antecedents, many of which were in decline at the same time the militia system was being formalized in the North American colonies, and notes how participation in the militia reinforced status within the existing social order and excluded people of color and Native Americans. A brief introductory video offers an overview of the establishment of militia systems in twelve of the colonies that would rebel against British rule in 1775 (only in Quaker Pennsylvania was militia service not codified), but the bulk of the exhibit focuses on the post-Revolutionary militia until the decline of compulsory militia service in the decades after the War of 1812. It is interesting that the exhibit makes scant mention of the challenges and deficiencies within the militia system that were experienced during the conflict with Britain from 1812 to 1815 and that constituted a significant factor in that decline. The exhibition is strongest in its exploration of the passage of the Militia Act of 1792, which codifies the American system of defense and the debates between Federalists and Anti-Federalists over control of the militia as a means of defining state power. The exhibit team also provides a strong overview of