From the earliest English settlements the survival of the infant colonies in North America depended upon local militias. Throughout the 17th and early 18th centuries the burden of successive wars with the American Indians, and with the regular troops and militias of Britain's colonial rivals France and Spain, fell mainly upon locally raised volunteers. This first of a fascinating three-part study includes a general introduction and chronology, and chapters on Crown troops in North America; and begins a colony-by-colony review of militias and provincial units. The text is illustrated with rare early images and with eight specially commissioned full colour plates.

From the earliest English settlements the survival of the infant colonies in North America depended upon local militias. Before the mid-18th century royal troops were seldom shipped out from Britain, and the main burden of successive wars with the American Indians, and with Britain's colonial rivals France and Spain, fell upon locally raised units, which also fought alongside the Crown forces during the major operations of the French-Indian War of the 1750s. This final book of a fascinating three-part study covers the militias and provincial troops raised in the Carolinas, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Georgia, Nova Scotia, Hudson's Bay and Quebec Province; and also Rangers, and colors and standards.