The Unpopular History of the United States
principally of substitutes, totally ungovernable, regardless of military duty and subordination.”
That was no news. Our militia bad rarely been anything else. They were individual Americans. But Congress added an apology which explained everything: “The attack was unexpected, the troops having just been dismissed from morning parade. The militia were in advance and fled through the main army without firing a gun. This circumstance threw the troops into some disorder, from which it appears that they never recovered.” Under such plainly mitigating circumstances the militiamen pleaded that the Indians had attacked unexpectedly, as Indians had no legal right to do. Indians are not submarines. Nobody was looking for Indians. Nobody was thinking of Indians. Nobody was meddling with Indians. A perfectly nice Indian should never jump on a mob of substitutes just after they had been dismissed from morning parade. And the militia, strictly according to Hoyle, turned
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