Citizen Soldiers in the War of 1812

During the War of 1812, state militias were intended to be the primary fighting force. Unfortunately, while militiamen showed willingness to fight, they were untrained, undisciplined, and ill-equipped. These raw volunteers had no muskets, and many did not know how to use the weapons once they had been issued. Though established by the Constitution, state militias found themselves wholly unprepared for war. The federal government was empowered to use these militias to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions;but in a system of divided responsibility, it was the states\u27 job to appoint officers and to train the soldiers. Edward Skeen reveals states\u27 responses to federal requests for troops and provides in-depth descriptions of the conditions, morale, and experiences of the militia in camp and in battle. Skeen documents the failures and successes of the militias, concluding that the key lay in strong leadership. He also explores public perception of the force, both before and after the war, and examines how the militias changed in response to their performance in the War of 1812. After that time, the federal government increasingly neglected the militias in favor of a regular professional army. C. Edward Skeen, professor of history at the University of Memphis, is the author of John Armstrong Jr.: A Biography. Named the Best Book of 1998 in the category of non-combat organization and social history given by the Army Historical Foundation. Skeen looks beyond the surface problems to address the performance and the reasons for the failure of the militia . . . . An invaluable contribution for military and American history. —Bookwatch As Skeen states, \u27There is no book dealing specifically with the militia in the War of 1812. The author fills that void in a work that has comprehensive documentation, excellent analysis, and clear writing. —Choice A valuable resource to any scholar investigating the militia system of the United States\u27 first declared war under the Constitution. Not only provides insights into the War of 1812, but also into the broader American militia tradition. —H-Net Reviews Impressive and properly grounded where it should be—solidly in state and local sources. Until the twentieth century, the state soldiery in whatever guise—militia, uniformed volunteers, National Guard—was a state and local institution and can only be understood from that perspective. —Jerry Cooper A useful analysis of militia in a war that was largely fought with volunteer forces. —Journal of America’s Military Past Skeen\u27s exhaustive research in both state and federal sources provides a more detailed record than hitherto available of the diversity of militia laws and practices, the complexity of federal-state relations, and the actual performance of the amateur soldiers in the field. —Journal of Military History An excellent addition not only to our knowledge of the War of 1812 but also to the evolution and development of the American military establishment. —Journal of the Early Republic This indexed volume will appeal to those interested in U.S. and military history. —Library Lane Rightly concludes that the militia was frequently unreliable, ill-equipped and ill-trained, and generally incapable of standing up to the British forces. —Michigan Historical Review A timely, valuable, and by no means unsympathetic treatment of the militia in that conflict. —New York Military Affairs Makes a significant contribution to the scholarship on the War of 1812. —Newsletter of the Army Historical Foundationhttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_military_history/1006/thumbnail.jp

\u3cem\u3eThe Kohn-Hennig Library: A Catalog\u3c/em\u3e

August Kohn and his daughter Helen Kohn Hennig were two of South Carolina\u27s greatest book collectors. The object of their collecting was South Caroliniana, in all its variety. Their combined library of more than four thousand titles, now a part of the South Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina, includes novels, short stories, and poetry; biographies, sermons, and military histories; pamphlets, maps, and periodicals; and much more. The collection includes both the exceedingly rare and the too easily overlooked (a rich collection of pamphlets, promotional material, and business histories). No corner of the state is excluded, and no subject ignored. The library is particularly rich in Jewish material, a topic especially dear to both collectors. But the wide range of titles catalogued in The Kohn-Hennig Library will inspire, intrigue, and fascinate readers, researchers, and collectors everywhere. In addition to identifying all the titles in that collection, this publication pays tribute to Kohn and Hennig, to book collectors everywhere, and to the joys of book collecting. The volume includes essays by Allen H. Stokes, executive director of the South Caroliniana Library, and Belinda Gergel, a retired history professor and former president of the Historic Columbia Foundation. Excerpted from USC Press