Short Rounds

"Nothing to Report"

One night around 1880, while the old Victorian war horse Lord Napier of Magdala was serving as Governor of Gibraltar, an officer who had taken on board too much champagne lost his way trying to get back to his quarters, walked off the Rock, and fell to his death.  The following morning, having read the report of the officer of the day, a Lt. O'Donohue, Napier summoned that worthy to his office.

When O'Donohue arrived, Napier asked, "You were officer of the guard at the Elphinstone Guard yesterday?

"I was, sir."

"Lieutenant M____ was killed by walking over the rock."

"He was, sir."

"And yet you said in your report that nothing extraordinary had happened on your guard?"

"I did, sir."

"Well, Mr. O'Donohue, don't you think it extraordinary that a lieutenant walks over the rock, falls one thousand feet, and is killed?"

"Indeed, sir," came the swift reply, "I would think it a good deal more extraordinary if he had fallen that distance and not been killed!"

State Line Forces During the War of 1812

Technically speaking, under the terms of the Militia Act of 1792, on the eve of the War of 1812 the several states were able to provide a combined militia force of 719,499 officers and men, organized into over a thousand regiments and commanded by some 300 generals, so that more than 9-percent of the American people were under arms, at least on paper. 

Unfortunately, most militiamen were poorly trained, if at all, and usually lacked equipment, even appropriate firearms.  Most officers were hardly better prepared than their men, often owing their positions to political or family ties rather than training and experience.  As for compulsory militia musters, they were, as one contemporary put it more often characterized by the rites of Bacchus than those of Mars, the troops usually being liberally supplied with liquor, whether or not they had any military equipment.

When the United States went to war in 1812 more problems appeared.  Many militiamen refused to serve beyond the nation’s borders, claiming, with some validity, that the Constitution limited the militia to repelling invasions or suppressing insurrections.  Then too, there was much confusion over the chain of command when militia units from different states served together or served alongside Regulars, while many Regulars often refused to serve under militia officers, even quite able officers who had been placed over them by the President

So the war turned out badly.

By 1814, even as Congress prepared to introduce conscription, many states began to raise standing forces that would be full-time state line troops.  Now the Constitution prohibits states from maintaining "troops of war" -- that is, standing forces -- in peacetime, but the matter is less clear in wartime.  During the colonial period and the Revolutionary War states had often maintained standing forces on their own budgets, raised from volunteers or through drafts on the militia, organizations which often attained considerable skill.  As a result, a majority of the 18 states raised or had begun to raise their own standing forces.

The war ended, of course, late in 1814.  A few weeks later there came Andrew Jackson’s spectacular victory at New Orleans.  Although the battle was won by a combination of Regulars, volunteers, militiamen, and even a few pirates, not to mention considerable British ineptitude, it was widely cited as proof of the effectiveness of the militia, which effectively prevented efforts to reform the institution for generations. 

BookNote:  The best account American regulars and militiamen in the war is Robert S. Quimby's two volume The U.S. Army in the War of 1812 : An Operational and Command Study (2 Vol Set)

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