Reply #7: Please note NO PUNISHMENT was ever part of the Act.

[happyslug]

Thus in the Battle of New Orleans the people of Louisiana who did NOT own a Musket were formed into a Reserve that had standing orders to "plug" any gap the British achieve in their attack on the American line. Except for knives and clubs this unit was unarmed (If they had a musket they were sent to the trenches General Jackson had built). Fortunately for them, the British Attack failed BEFORE it hit the American line and thus never had to charge in to turn back the British.

Why were these men unarmed? Because they did NOT have the money to buy a Musket. What was their "punishment" for not having a Musket, to be put into this "filler" unit. What had been their punishment from 1803, when Louisiana became part of the US AND the Militia Act became applicable to these Louisianians AND the Attack of 1815? Nothing. for the Militia Act set NO PUNISHMENT for NOT having the equipment. Such people still had to show up for Militia Drills (When called) and Sheriff's Patrol (The Sheriff's Patrol was a related concept to the Militia, in that ALL men had to serve, generally 1-2 nights a month, it tended to die out in the North after the War of 1812 along with the Militia given the lack of any real threat even from the remaining Indians after 1815, but survived relatively intact in the South as part of the Southern policy of making sure the Slaves did NOT meet up and organize a revolt).

For the above reason each state had fines for people who did NOT show up for Militia Drills. These fines, after 1815, tended, in the north, to drop so that more people would opt to pay the fine then show up for drill. After a couple of Decades the North found that any further dropping of the fines did NOT bring in more revenues, some men would show up for drill rather then pay the fine (And the states had uses for the money from the fines). At that point in time most Northern States drop the fine to Zero Dollars and made what had been a fine a head tax you paid if you showed up for drill or not (the State preferred the Revenue over the ability to call up the Militia). Thus while before the Civil War most Northern States Militia had become more or less a joke (These were so bad that people who actually wanted to have some military experience form clubs of what they called the National Guard, these unites were enlisted into service by the State and Federal Government in the Mexican War and US Civil War and became what we now call the National Guard, the older Militia had some life in the form of "Home Guard" units during the Civil War but as a whole the Militia was just ignored (Through even today the Militia comes into play, most often during disasters when everyone in the neighbor shows up and work together for example building sand bags alone the rivers during major floods, mostly called "Volunteers" today but it is the Militia but rarely called by that name).

In the South, on the other hand, the Sheriff's Patrol and Militia stayed active till the Civil War for both were tied in with containing the Slaves and making sure no slave revolt occurred. Thus the South was better able to quickly field an effective army in 1861 compared to the North but as time went on the North more then made up for this Advantage.

Just some comments on the Militia and the Militia Act.