I would like to add some historical points to the discussion on the DAR and those who joined based on ancestors who belonged to the Anabaptist denominations like the Brethren, Mennonites and Amish. First, I highly recommend you read the book “Brethren in the New Nation”, by Sappington. Although this book does not deal with the Revolutionary War period, it does go into explicit detail regarding how the Brethren dealt with the draft during the Civil War. The attitudes toward pacifism shown in Sappington’s book during the Civil War would also have been the same in the Revolutionary War. The non-enroller listings for Frederick County, MD, and the non-associator listings for Lancaster County, support this view. Militia lists are nothing more than name lists of those eligible for the militia. Most colonies had militia ordinances. For example Frederick County, VA had this ordinance in 1775. “Every Member of this County between sixteen & sixty years of Age, shall appear once every Month, at least, in the Field under Arms; & it is recommended to all to muster weekly for their Improvements”. There were exceptions, including clergy, and the ability to pay a substitute. The records from that period show that the militia was more like a rabble than an army. They fought well if you put them behind a stone wall or in the trees. But they typically cut and ran during the European style battles that typified those in the Revolutionary War. General James Wolfe of the French & Indian War called the militia “contemptible cowardly dogs”. John Hancock said, “To place any dependence upon Militia, is, resting upon a broken staff.” The Militia was typically a regional defense force. New England militia fought in the engagements in their area, southern militia in the south, etc. Their term of service was dictated by the farming cycle. The real fighting was done by the Continental Army. In regard to those that joined the Continental Army. Patriotism wasn’t always the driving motivation to join the army. Many signed up for the bonus due to economic hardship. As a French volunteer noted, “There is a hundred times more enthusiasm for this Revolution in any Paris café, than in all the colonies together.” Desertion was wide spread, and several mutinies occurred including one that required the disbanding of the 10th Pennsylvania regiment (the regiment of one of my supposed DAR ancestors!). In regard to Austin Cooper’s comments on Brethren in the militia. I believe Austin made the same assumption as many others in the DAR have made, and that is militia lists and militia members were one in the same. Just for the record, the engagements in the Brothersvalley area were Indian raids led by Simon Girty. In 1779, 250 militia were sent from York, Cumberland and Lancaster County to defend Bedford and Westmoreland County (Brothersvalley was part of Bedford County at that time). Girty and his Indians burned Hannastown in 1782. Bill Thomas

> > First, I highly recommend you read the book “Brethren in the New Nation”, by > Sappington. Although this book does not deal with the Revolutionary War > period, it does go into explicit detail regarding how the Brethren dealt > with the draft during the Civil War. The attitudes toward pacifism shown in > Sappington’s book during the Civil War would also have been the same in the > Revolutionary War. The non-enroller listings for Frederick County, MD, and > the non-associator listings for Lancaster County, support this view. > > Let me complicate the picture - I took the Conscientious Objector stand during the Korean War, but my son went into the Marines - so I have some sympathy with both sides - In this research I've been doing on the Early Brethren in Kentucky - the "Frontier Brethren" - one of the observations I am making was that these Brethren held strongly to the Pietist origin of our church - and there were differences. Dr Dale Brown, who taught the Pietism Course at Bethany Seminary, made the point strong that we Brethren today do not know what Pietism was. What he taught was the history of the beginnings - and he admitted that there were no records, except for Ephrata (a Radical Pietism), to show what it meant in the life of the individual and the church. The Brethren Church of today comes out of the Brethren of eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland (and slightly in Virginia, the Brethren had only been in the Valley a couple years before the war started) who survived the persecution of the Revolutionary period. Our stand was based both on the Bible -the commandment - "Thou shalt not kill." (The Hebrew word is "ratasch" - which means to kill a person -as opposed to "sachat" -which means to kill an animal. - so to explain it as "no murder" is incorrect!) and through our promise ("A Dunker's word is as good as his bond!") of loyalty to the King. We appreciated the opportunity the King gave, to permit us to live in this peaceful land, after the devastations suffered in the Palatinate during the wars of Europe. The Sons of Liberty, proponents of the Revolution, but not a majority of the population, terrorized those who stood in opposition to them. The Brethren, and Mennonites and Amish (fellow Anabaptists), were persecuted - some severely. The church "withdrew" into community with these others also suffering for their stand. Shall I say, we hid out together. The early Brethren were nearly opposite. The Germantown Church (mother church) was reported to pray and sing so loud, that it hurt your ears, clear down the street (Durnbaugh). Many a Brethren home became a center of evangelism to their neighbors. Pietism was concerned with a revival of the individual, to bring them to a closer relationship to Jesus. Creeds and practices hardly mattered. The original pietism spread through all the churches of Germany. There were only two denominations to directly result out of the movement, and the Brethren are one - and even his mentor, Hochmann von Hochenau, was upset about what Alexander Mack had done. As such, Dr Floyd Mallot, professor of Church History at Bethany Seminary, used to ask - "What happened to the Brethren during the Revolution? They Changed!" The change was from Pietism to Anabaptism - from an open freedom to a type of legalism. The church Elders met in an Annual Meeting, where they determined the direction of the Church, and they enforced their decisions on the churches. This was not Pietism, this was Anabaptism - and the Brethren who had migrated west (Brothers Valley, and Washington Co PA) and south (the Carolinas), and some few who were in Kaintuck - were Pietist - they had left before Annual Meeting developed and before the emphasis on Anabaptism. As one migrant coming to Ohio on the new National Road (US 40) -about 1826 asked: "What do we do about these 'Strange Brethren'?" There was considerable difference between the Brethren, who were already here, and these Annual Meeting Brethren who came later -and Annual Meeting kicked all these early Brethren OUT (unless they changed -and accepted the Annual Meeting decisions - see the records on the "Far Western Brethren" and Elder George Wolfe Jr - George Wolfe accepted the Annual Meeting way, many others did not!) The Frontier Brethren do not seem to have had the strong stand for Pacifism that was true of the Annual Meeting Brethren. They did defend themselves against the British and Indian invasions. Some of them killed, others reloaded the guns for the fighters or tended injured or fought fires from the fire arrows. It was as Daniel Boone (Quaker origin) said (speaking of being a waggoner for General Braddock, at the defeat at Pittsburg) -he killed the first of only three Indians that he killed in his life. Many of the early Brethren in Kentucky were youth who had fought in the Revolution (Capt Henry Rhoads -of Brothers Valley - in Muhlenberg Co KY 1784). Some had even been expelled from their family back home, because of the war, but they were still Brethren -and carried the Brethren faith with them (but Pietism -and not the Anabaptism). Annual Meeting "expelled" (Frontier Brethren term) these early Brethren about 1826. Elder Adam Hostetler and Elder Peter Hon were placed on the Ban (the Brethren Encyclopedia calls them "the Hostetler Brethren", they called themselves "the Brethren Association"). From what Historian Abraham Cassel says, in numbers it may have been almost half the denomination. The Brethren, in that time, practiced what they called: "Unanimity" - we sought the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our decisions, so there could be no decision until the whole body voted unanimous. The Annual Meeting Brethren saw these Frontier Brethren as not accepting the decisions of the Holy Spirit (but the Frontier Brethren had not been present when the decisions were made, and seem to have not even known about the question or the decision!) So they had to change and accept the Annual Meeting decision - or leave. The Brethren of the Civil War period were All - Annual Meeting Brethren, the Brethren of the Revolution were not. Be sure - there were other differences between the Pietist faith and Anabaptism - we don't really know them all (someone needs to translate the commentary of the Pietist Berleberg Bible -I'm sure it would tell us things we don't know about Pietist beliefs - but it is HUGE - 8 volumes, over 1000 pages each - 18th Century German) Merle C Rummel