The American Army.  The Army had competed with the Navy for the lowest place in Jefferson’s Inaugural of 1801.  ’This is the only government where every man will meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern...  A well-disciplined militia is our best reliance for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them.’  The Army was then reduced to three thousand men.  ’Such were the results of Mr Jefferson’s low estimate of, or rather contempt for, the military character,’ said General Winfield Scott, the best officer the United States produced between ‘1812’ and the Civil War.  In 1808 ’an additional military force’ was authorized.  In January 1812, after war had been virtually decided on, the establishment was raised to thirty-five thousand.  But in June, when war had been declared, less than a quarter of this total could be called effectives, and more than half were still wanting to complete.’  The grand total of all American regulars, including those present with the colours on the outbreak of hostilities as well as those raised during the war, amounted to fifty-six thousand.  Yet no general had six thousand actually in the firing line of any one engagement.

The United States Volunteers.  Ten thousand volunteers were raised, from first to last.  They differed from the regulars in being enlisted for shorter terms of service and in being generally allowed to elect their own regimental officers.  Theoretically they were furnished in fixed quotas by the different States, according to population.  They resembled the regulars in other respects, especially in being directly under Federal, not State, authority.

The Rangers.  Three thousand men with a real or supposed knowledge of backwoods life served in the war.  They operated in groups and formed a very unequal force—­good, bad, and indifferent.  Some were under the Federal authority.  Others belonged to the different States.  As a distinct class they had no appreciable influence on the major results of the war.

The Militia.  The vast bulk of the American forces, more than three-quarters of the grand total by land and sea, was made up of the militia belonging to the different States of the Union.  These militiamen could not be moved outside of their respective States without State authority; and individual consent was also necessary to prolong a term of enlistment, even if the term should come to an end in the middle of a battle.  Some enlisted for several months; others for no more than one.  Very few had any military knowledge whatever; and most of the officers were no better trained than the men.  The totals from all the different States amounted to 456,463.  Not half of these ever got near the front; and not nearly half of those who did get there ever came into action at all.  Except at New Orleans, where the conditions were quite abnormal, the militia never really helped to decide the issue of any battle, except,