page_title: History of the United States Army National Guard
section_title: Early action
hierarchical_section_title: History of the United States Army National Guard / Early action
caption_attribution_description: English: A 19th Century interpretation of the Fairfield Swamp Fight.
context_page_description: The history of the Army National Guard in the United States dates from 1636, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony's government organized existing militia companies into three regiments. The National Guard's history continued through the colonial era, including the French and Indian War, and extends into the modern era, including participation in the War on Terror.
context_section_description: The militia of the Bay Colony, combined with militias from Plymouth and Saybrook and Native American allies from the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes, fought the Native Americans of Southern New England in the Pequot War (1634–1638). This war resulted in hundreds of deaths, hundreds of Native Americans sold into slavery or scattered throughout North America, and the destruction of the Pequots as a group.
  The militias of the Southern New England colonies fought Native Americans again in King Philip's War from 1675 to 1676.  This conflict led to the decisive defeat of the Narragansets, further straining relationships between Native Americans and white Europeans, but enabling continued white settlement of New England.
  The American colonists maintained their militias in the late 1600s and 1700s, preferring the militia to a standing army as the result of English experience with a standing army when Oliver Cromwell established a military dictatorship during the First English Civil War.  In addition, the colonists had little interest in paying the taxes to maintain permanent garrisons of British troops.
  The militias were also an early experiment in democracy, with company grade officers often elected by their men, and the higher officers appointed by colonial governors or legislatures.  The colonies did not exert centralized control over the militias or coordinate their efforts.  Training typically took place during musters each summer, with militia members reporting for inspection and undergoing several days of training in drill and ceremony.
caption: 18th-century depiction of militia at the 1637 battle known as the Great Swamp Fight.
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