The militia act of 1792 gave the president the authority to call out the militia of the several states. It further called for the conscription or compulsory enlistment of every "free able-bodied white male citizen" between the ages of 18 and 45 into a local militia company". President George Washington was the first to use this new authority to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. The 1792 Militia Act did not classify the militia by setting any service requirements according to age, nor did it make any provisions for select units such as active-duty units that might serve along side the regular army. In 1805, as threats from Great Britain, France and Spain posed great danger to the United States, Jefferson urged Congress to consider establishing a classified system for our militia. Jefferson noted, that now just 13 years after the Militia act of 1792, the latest census showed that there were almost 300,000 able bodied men between the ages of 18 and 26 alone. From this number, the country could easily pull a competent number of men to provide for any offensive or defensive acts that is needed. Jefferson suggested that a system of classification should be established where young men between the ages of 18 and 26 could enter into active military service during their younger years and then retire to civilian life where they can spend their older years with their families. Jefferson also urged a separation between a regular or more active militia from that which is less so, regularly rotating units of men into active service to server along side the regular army.
Here are the words of Thomas Jefferson from his 1805 annual address to Congress regarding this matter:
"Whether it will be necessary to augment our land forces will be decided by occurrences probably in the course of your session. In the mean time you will consider whether it would not be expedient for a state of peace as well as of war so to organize or class the militia as would enable us on any sudden emergency to call for the services of the younger portions, unencumbered with the old and those having families. Upward of 300,000 able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 26 years, which the last census shews we may now count within our limits, will furnish a competent # for offense or defense in any point where they may be wanted, and will give time for raising regular forces after the necessity of them shall become certain; and the reducing to the early period of life all its active service can not but be desirable to our younger citizens of the present as well as future times, in as much as it engages to them in more advanced age a quiet and undisturbed repose in the bosom of their families. I can not, then, but earnestly recommend to your early consideration the expediency of so modifying our militia system as, by a separation of the more active part from that which is less so, we may draw from it when necessary an efficient corps fit for real and active service, and to be called to it in regular rotation."Unfortunately, Jefferson failed to move Congress to act on this matter, leaving the American army ill-prepared for the coming war of 1812. The states remained in control of the militia, and many remained ill-prepared. One example, is the Battle of Frenchtown, also known as the Battle of the River Raisin. James Winchester, the second-in-command of the Army of the Northwest, led a column of approximately 1,000 inexperienced regulars and volunteers, mostly from Kentucky into battle. The Americans initially forced the retreat of The British and their Indian allies from Frenchtown, but in a surprise counterattack four days later, the Americans lost 397 soldiers with 547 taken prisoner. The rallying cry "Remember the River Raisin" led many more Kentuckians to enlist for the war of 1812.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29447
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militia_Acts_of_1792
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_service_in_the_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Frenchtown
https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2530/4100351223_df136f555f_b.jpg
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