NOIRTRASH
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2015
- Posts
- 10,580
I bought an old memoir Thomas Fleming found and published. Fleming is a prominent historian who started life helping a few Presidents assemble their memoirs. Fleming finds all the skeletons the pols and perfessers bury.
The memoir is the recollection of an old man who joined the American Revolution as a larval young man of 16 or so in late 1775. He started out with Washington at Brooklyn and finished with Washington at Yorktown. He notes how Militia furnished their own guns and knives and other stuff. They weren't Continental Regulars, they were common militia (male civilians between 18 and 45 who did what was called DRUMHEAD ENLISTMENTS for limited action. That is, the officer laid a silver dollar atop a drum head, and those who took the dollar became soldiers for an hour or a day or whatever the action required. The writers first action fizzled after an hour or so, when the British failed to arrive in town. All were dismissed till next time.
American volunteer fire companies operated the same way. The alarm was sounded, men responded with their gear, and collected a dollar. I was such a person long ago, and most of us donated the dollars to the fire company for equipment. We were bonafide firemen for the duration of the fire or drowning or tornado or car wreck or whatever the action was.
The memoir is the recollection of an old man who joined the American Revolution as a larval young man of 16 or so in late 1775. He started out with Washington at Brooklyn and finished with Washington at Yorktown. He notes how Militia furnished their own guns and knives and other stuff. They weren't Continental Regulars, they were common militia (male civilians between 18 and 45 who did what was called DRUMHEAD ENLISTMENTS for limited action. That is, the officer laid a silver dollar atop a drum head, and those who took the dollar became soldiers for an hour or a day or whatever the action required. The writers first action fizzled after an hour or so, when the British failed to arrive in town. All were dismissed till next time.
American volunteer fire companies operated the same way. The alarm was sounded, men responded with their gear, and collected a dollar. I was such a person long ago, and most of us donated the dollars to the fire company for equipment. We were bonafide firemen for the duration of the fire or drowning or tornado or car wreck or whatever the action was.
