What are the three characteristics of early American militias?

Answer 1

I am not sure I can only come up with three, but here are a few. Colonial militias were obligatory-- that is, every able-bodied white male was expected to join in the defense of the state where he lived. The men were expected to provide (and pay for) their own weapons, and there was very little training in those early days. Also, there was no national standard for the militias-- each city or state had their own militia, with its own rules and its own way of doing things, and even the uniforms varied from state to state.