Page:Harris Dickson--The unpopular history of the United States.djvu/42

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V

WHAT THE SHORT-TERM MILITIA DID

It was like pulling hen’s teeth to secure the short-term militiamen. Now we shall see what they accomplished while actually in service. And let me say again, over and over, that I mean to cast no slur upon those individual men; what they did was common to short-term untrained recruits in all countries, at all times, among all peoples.

In 1775 Washington had 17,000 men under

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