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 [REF].
Many leaders of both British and American forces during the American Revolution had military experience in the French and Indian War, including American militia veterans Washington, Israel Putnam,[REF] Daniel Morgan,[REF] Adam Stephen,[REF] Daniel Boone,[REF] Philip Schuyler,[REF] John Stark,[REF] and John Thomas [REF].