Local militias were a popular and common form of community defense in the sparsely populated English colonies on America's eastern seaboard. They were especially important along the edges of the frontier. Most able bodied men - from a wide range of ages - answered the call to serve their community and then returned to the civilian pastimes as soon as the crisis was resolved.

Perhaps one of the most memorable militias formed in the years before the Declaration of Independence was organized near present day Bennington, Vermont. One of their earliest actions was defending their neighbor's homes. New York and New Hampshire both claimed sovereignty of the territory west of the Green Mountains; the militia who had settled the lands along with their neighbors (under land grants from New Hampshire) sent a New York Sheriff's eviction party away after whipping them with birch rods.

The first American offensive move in the Revolutionary War came over a year before the Declaration of Independence was signed. On May 10th, 1775 over 100 of the Green Mountain Boys with other volunteers under the command of Ethan Allen captured the British frontier fort at Ticonderoga. In action two years later their resistance to General Burgoyne's British raids to seize food, ammunition and arms in the Bennington area led to Burgoyne's eventual defeat.