C76 



ST.VTE-MILITIA. 



Aug. 28, 1728. In 1736 his father removed to IVr- 

 ryfield, now Manchester, in that S'ate, whore young 

 Stark was emploved in farniin-.', with intervals at 

 hunting, till April li\ 17:>iJ. On that d.iy, while 

 out hunting, he was taken prisoner by a party of s 

 Francis Indians, in whosi> hands ho remained a nip- 

 tire for six weeks, being finally sot five on the pay. 

 in. -lit of $103 ransom. While with th Indians his 

 freqnent exhibitions of connive and independence of 

 spirit mail.- him very popular, and he was adopted 

 into the tribe. In 1755 he was appointed lieutenant 

 in Rogers' company of rangers, with which In- -n-ved 

 in the campaigns of that and the, following year. In 

 January, 1757, tho corps to which he was attached, 

 while returning from an expedition, was attack. -d by 

 a strong brwly of French and Indians near Ticou- 

 deroga and a sanguinary conflict cns'ie 1. ending in 

 the repnlsa of the colonists. The management of 

 the retreat fell to him, and it was eff.-oted with great 

 skill and prudence. S.ion afterward he was made 

 captain of rangers, and in 1758 took part in Aber- 

 crombie's attack on Ticonderoga. In the following 

 spring he joined Amherst's army, and was present at 

 the reduction of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. 



At the end of t!io French war Stark returned to 

 his farm, and remained there till tho beginning of 

 tho Revolntionary troubles, when he was made a 

 member of the Committee of Safe'y, and on learning 

 of the battle of Lexington immediately repaired to 

 Cambridge. Here he was made colonel of a regi- 

 ment of New Hampshire troops, and took part wii'u 

 them in the battle of Banker Hill, where his men 

 were sta'ioned behind a rail fence at the left of tho 

 line. They held their ground firmly, and repeatedly 

 repelled the enemy with great loss, lint were forced 

 to retreat when the other portions of the line were 

 taken. At the close of the campaign in the North, 

 in 1776, he joined Gen. Washington, and in the 

 battle of Trenton commanded tho vanguard of tho 

 array. In the subsequent engagement at Princeton 

 he played an active a:id prominent part. In the pro- I 

 motions that followed, however, Stark was over- 

 looked and, feeling aggrieved, he resigned and re- 

 turned to his farm in April, 1777. He was not left 

 long at rest. The advance of Bnrgoyno from Canada 

 began in Jnne, and fort after fort was taken as lie 

 advanced south by the Lake Champluin and Lake. 

 George route. Tho council of New Hampshii. 

 once commissioned S'ark to raise a force to guard 

 the frontier, and he quickly found himself again in 

 active service. Bnrgoyno sent a detachment under 

 Col. Banm to seize the supplies which the Ameri- 

 cans had collected at Bennington, Vt. Gen. Stark 

 marched rapidly to save these stores, and, finding 

 Damn intrenched at a point near Bennington, at- 

 tacked with groat energy. It was at this time that 

 lie inspired his raw troops with tho speech that has 

 become historic: "There are tho red-coats; we 

 innst beat them to-day, or to-night my wife sleeps a 

 widow." His spirit was seconded by the valor of 

 his inon, the regulars were severely defeated, and a 

 second forco that was marching to Baum's assistance 

 suffered the same fate, the British loss in these two 

 actions exceeding 600 men. Yet more important was 

 th>> saving of the stores, of which Bnrgoyne stood 

 sadly in need, and the want of which aided in the 

 eventual total collapse of his expedition. 



For this gallant action Congress voted thanks to 

 Gen. Stark on Oct. 4, 1777, though it had just before 

 passed a vote of censure on him for disobeying Gen. 

 Lincoln's order to march to the west of the Hudson, 

 a stop which would have left Baum's mid unop- 

 posed. He was commissioned major-general, and in 

 September joined Gates and contributed to the suc- 

 cess of the campaign. In 1778 he was placed in 

 charge of the Northern Department at Albany, and 

 in October of that year joined Gates in Rhode Island. 



In May, 17SO, he joined the army at Morristown, and 

 was present at the battle of .Springfield, being again 

 placed in command of the Northern l>epai Inient in 

 the spring of 1781. This ended his tinny service, 

 and he returned to his faun at Manchester. N. H., 

 whore he died. May H, 1S2J, Confess having voted 

 him in IMs a peir-ion of still per month. 



ST.VIT. MII.ITIA. The militia of ench of tho 

 io'i is an essentially State institution 

 regulated by State laws. But by the provisions of 

 the Constitution of the United .States and the laws 

 of Congn ss emu-ted to carry those provisions into 

 elfect, the militia of each State is, to a certain ex- 

 tent, subject to Congressional regulation and, under 

 certain circumstances, is required to render service 

 to the general government. This twofold relation 

 on the one hand to the State, on the other to tho 

 Union gave rise, during a considerable portion of 

 our national history, to ninch discussion, to angiy 

 disputes, and of ton to serious embarra Tartly 



by the logic of events, partly by the decisions of our 

 highest judicial tribunals, these questions may all be 

 regarded as now practically settled. A brief sketch 

 of the history of the militia of the United St;*i 

 the nature of the questions above referred to, and of 

 the manner of their settlement is necessary to a full 

 understanding of the character and availability of 

 the militia as a military force and of its present con- 

 dition and strength. 



When the Continental Congress proclaimed the in- 

 dependence of the colonies in the famous Declara- 

 tion, the only military forco of \\hich it could avail 

 itself in order to maintain that declaration was tho 

 militia. All the regular soldiers in the country and 

 all the men who had received a scientific military 

 education were on the side of the Crown. But, on 

 the other hand, there was probably no country in tho 

 world where so large a proportion of tho common 

 people hnd a practical acquaintance with tho dnlics 

 of the soldier and so many of its educated men wcro 

 fitted to change from the duties of praro to those of 

 war. Tho long contest wilh tho Indians and tho 

 French had iiubned tho people with tho military 

 spirit, and familiarized them with tho dangers and 

 hardships of war, while to large numbers of the men 

 of ability that contest had been the school in which 

 they had acquired a military education. Washing- 

 ton was a graduate of no military college, but ho had 

 acquired the theory and practice of war by years of 

 service alongside of regularly educated British offi- 

 cers, and ho was only the most illustrious typo of n 

 class. After tho conclusion of tho Devolution tho 

 mass of the people gladly returned to the pursuits of 

 peace, but the military spirit was kept alive partly by 

 tradition and partly by tho spectacle of the great 

 wars in Enro)X! going on almost continually dining 

 the next generation. The drill ami elliciency of tho 

 militia was far better preserved than it was a half- 

 century later. 



The "Constitution of the United States, adopted in 

 17H9, gave Congress tho power "To provide for 

 calling forth tho militia to execute the laws of the 

 Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions." 

 These words conferred upon Congress the power of 

 doing for the Union, as a whole, that which each 

 State in its individual capacity could do for itself. 

 They state briefly but clearly the primary reasons 

 for the existence of a militia. But the Constitution 

 further gave to Congress the power, "To provide for 

 organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and 

 for governing snch part of them as may be eni) 

 in theservice of the United States, reserving to tho 

 States respectively the appointment of tho officers, 

 and the authority of training the militia according to 

 tho discipline prescribed by Congress." Further, 

 the Constitution provides that, " The President shall 

 be commander-in-chief of the militia of tho several 



