General Discussion

The book covers the history of the Northwest Indian War ("Little Turtle's War " ) of the 1790's.

The framers of the constitution didn't want a large standing army. They feared a despotic leader could use such an army for their own purposes. (Smart fellows, these framers.) That was the main reason the second amendment was put there - the idea was that common people, especially those on the frontier who might encounter Indigenous Americans or British units unhappy with their presence, would form a local militia with their own arms and serve the purpose of a regular army.

They wouldn't have artillery - the regular army would provide that - but the small arms used by the average citizen were basically the same as what a trained soldier would have. Maybe they had more rifled muskets, but these were far slower to load at the time, so they didn't necessarily give a rifleman an advantage.

This proved disastrous in practice. We didn't have an enormous standing army until after the Second World War, but the standing army was expanded in the years after this war.

It's an excellent book.