The Volunteers

The aim of whipping up patriotic sentiments was to encourage local citizens to form volunteer brigades that would act as a first line of defense against a potential French invasion. This advertisement for a new and revised manual for platoon instruction appeared at the end of the pamphlet, The Atrocities of the Corsican Daemon.

SpCN. 940.27 T627g1803

Many of the volunteer defense groups, such as the York East Riding Yeomanry Cavalry, maintained diaries that documented their drills and other communications. This passage records that the Lord Lieutenant has no doubt that the county volunteers would respond with "Zeal & Alacrity."

Popular illustration depicting the St. James volunteers training.

This diary entry from the Loyal Colchester Volunteers reinforces local planning efforts by noting the rendevouz points that will be used in case of invasion.

Even the Anti-Gallican took a break from its often harsh satires to devote a page in sincere thanks to the volunteers.

SPCN. 941.073 A629A

In this circa 1860 pamphlet, George Cruikshank recalls the Napoleonic threats and his boyhood participation in a local volunteer militia alongside and his father Isaac, both noted British illustrators.

SPC. 741.6 C955P

In this excerpt, Cruikshank counters criticisms that the volunteer militias were unprofessional and would founder in the face of an actual invasion, but also offers a comic and self-deprecating illustration of volunteers.

SPC. 741.6 C955P

As part of the British anti-invasion preparations of 1803–1805, military and civilian efforts mobilized the population on a scale never before attempted in British history. This included a combined military force of over 615,000 in December 1803 of which upwards of 350,000 were citizen volunteers. As shown by the manuscript journal of the York East Riding Yeoman Cavalry, coastal communities began their recruitment and training as early as 1794 with the passage of the Volunteer Act. By 1796, these entries referred to their defensive purpose in language that would later surface in the propaganda such as “imminent danger” and “in case of invasion.” The volunteers were to operate in small bodies to harass, instill panic and wear out the French army, but never to get deeply engaged with French troops. Following his time as Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger assumed the rank of Commandant of the Cinque Port Volunteers. Napoleon’s failure to invade left these forces untested. All were disbanded in 1813, except for the Yeomanry, who were retained in case of civil insurrection.