A Rabble in Arms

"Rock-solid research, cleanly presented, answers for one corner of early New England the timeless question: Who serves, fights, and dies? For all the scholarly attention lavished on that part of American history, Zelner is the first to discover the truth." -- John Shy,author of A People Numerous and Armed "Zelners meticulously researched A Rabble in Arms provides an important corrective to an accepted narrative about democratic egalitarianism in New England towns. Indeed, Zelners findings on the social composition of armed forces, rural democracy and localism in colonial New England correspond with modern works on popular and political culture in early-modern England, as well as Revolutionary and early-national America." -- Guy Chet,author of Conquering the American Wilderness "A carefully researched account of how and why certain men from Essex County, MA, were chosen to fight in King Philips War." * Choice * "Zelner provides a valuable corrective to longstanding assumptions and misunderstandings about the English soldiery in King Philips War while shedding new light on the powers and values of the elites of the town militia committees.[He] has fundamentally altered the discussion." * New England Quarterly * "Zelner has done meticulous research on the social composition of the Essex men who went to war in 1675-76. He has done a model job of mining sources to show the complexity of social and economic forces at work in raising military expeditions in Essex County." * The Journal of Military History *

Kyle F. Zelner is Associate Professor of History and a Senior Fellow of the Center for the Study of War and Society at the University of Southern Mississippi.

List of Figures, Maps, and Tables Acknowledgments Introduction A Note on Method 1 "For the best ordering of the militia": English Military Precedent and the Early Massachusetts Bay Militia 2 The Massachusetts Bay Militia and the Practice of Impressment during King Philip's War 3 Many Men, Many Choices: Impressment in Essex County's Thriving Towns 4 Few Men, Few Options: Impressment in Essex County's Small Towns 5 The Pressed Men of Essex County: The Social Identity of the Soldiers of King Philip's War 6 The Effects of Impressment: War and Peace in Essex County Afterword: Military of Massachusetts Bay Transformed Appendix 1: The Soldiers of Essex County in King Philip's War Appendix 2: Rowley's 1662 Tax List: Ranked by Family with Soldiers' Families Highlighted Appendix 3: Topsfield's 1668 Tax List: Ranked by Family with Soldiers' Families Highlighted Appendix 4: An Examination of the Age of Essex County Soldiers and Officers in King Philip's War Appendix 5: The Occupations of the Soldiers of Essex County Abbreviations Used in Notes Notes Selected Bibliography Permissions Index About the Author