The War of the American Revolution : narrative, chronology, and bibliography / by Robert W. Coakley and Stetson Conn. Washington : Center of Military History, U.S. Army. Main Library, E230 .C62   Government Documents, D 114.2:AM 3 "The militiamen have been generally maligned as useless by one school of thought, and glorified by another as the true victors in the war.  In any balanced view it must be recognized that their contributions were great, though they would have counted for little without a Continental Army to give the American cause that continued sustenance that only a permanent force could give it.  It was the ubiquity of the militia that made British victories over the Continentals in the field so meaningless. And the success with which the militia did operate derived from the firm political control the patriots had established over the countryside long before the British were in any position to challenge it."