Send an E-Postcard of:
List of Soldiers

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.

This duty roster recorded when, where and for how long the men of the Deerfield, Massachusetts, militia served from 1775-1777. It also listed the money some of them paid for substitutes to serve in their place. The states called up militias for periods as short as two weeks or as long as several months. During the American Revolution, these "minutemen" were generally less reliable than was the Continental Army. Americans, however, preferred to depend upon militia, fearing that power-hungry officers or government officials could turn a standing army against the people it was supposed to protect. A note at the end singled out the men who refused to march in September 1777 to intercept British General John Burgoyne's army as it invaded the colonies from Canada.

top of page