Militia persons were normally expected to provide their own weapons, equipment, or supplies, although they might later be compensated for losses or expenditures. From the nation's founding through the early 1900s, the United States maintained only a minimal army and relied on state militias, directly related to earlier Colonial militias, to supply the majority of its troops.
By the mid 1600s every town had at least one militia company with a captain. In response to conflicts with Pequot Indians [the colonists encroaching on Indian lands and sacred sites], the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony ordered the colony’s scattered militia companies be organized into North, South, and East regiments with a goal of increasing the militia’s
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In the Colonial War for Independence, militia units were mobilized when British forces entered their geographic areas and participated in most of the battles fought during the war. The Militia Act of 1792 conscripted every "free able-bodied white male citizen" between the ages of 18 and 45 into a local militia company. (This was later expanded to all males, regardless of race, between the ages of 18 and 54 in 1862.) Militia members, referred to as "every citizen, so enrolled and notified", "...shall within six months thereafter, provide himself..." with a musket, bayonet, and belt, two spare flints, a cartridge box with 24 bullets, and a knapsack. Men owning rifles were required to provide a powder horn, ¼ pound of gunpowder, 20 rifle balls, a shooting pouch, and a knapsack. The acts provided for the authority of the president to call out the militias of the several states, "whenever the United States shall be invaded, or be in imminent danger of invasion from any foreign nation or Indian tribe". As a result, the outfitters and arms dealers were making a killing. (Pun intended: war is probably the root of this