Citizen soldiers? The identity of the English militiaman, 1757-1815

The ‘New Militia’ came into being in 1757, at the beginning of the Seven Years War. I have argued elsewhere that the debate around home defence that brought the militia into being was fundamentally about politics, gender and national identity. Within the republican political culture of the opposition, the militia was lauded as a force of ‘citizen soldiers’, that would be safer, cheaper and more effective than a standing army (or, at least, than German ‘mercenaries’). This would supposedly bring about social regeneration too, reinvigorating the ‘manliness’ and patriotism of the citizenry. Most historians of the militia have argued that this was pure rhetoric, and that the resulting force was quite different: militiamen were apparently reluctant, apolitical and little different to regular soldiers. This paper will explore life writings by officers and privates alike to suggest that this was not the case. Although the self-image of the militiaman in the period up to 1815 was hardly a reflection of the political rhetoric of the 1750s, we can nevertheless discern respects in which they conceived of their service as ‘citizenship’. This in turn raises a methodological point about the relationship between representation and identity in the cultural history of war