René Chartrand was born in Montreal and educated in Canada, the United States and the Bahamas. A senior curator with Canada's National Historic Sites for nearly three decades, he is now a freelance writer and historical consultant. He has written numerous articles and books including some 20 Osprey titles and the first two volumes of Canadian Military Heritage. He lives in Hull, Quebec, with his wife and two sons.

David Rickman lives in the State of Delaware, USA. He is the exhibits co-ordinator for the state parks system, where his favourite project is helping to restore and furnish an American Civil War-era seacoast fortress. At other times he is a freelance illustrator specialising in historical and ethnographic subjects. His works are in the collections of the National Park Service, Parks Canada and various other museums and historic sites. The son of a US Navy aviator, Mr Rickman has lived in Japan, grew up in California and now lives in Wilmington, Delaware with his wife, Deborah.

From the earliest English settlements the survival of the infant colonies in North America depended upon local militias. Throughout the 17th and most of the 18th century royal troops were seldom shipped out from Britain, and the main burden of successive wars with the American Indians, and with the regular troops and militias of Britain's colonial rivals France and Spain, usually fell upon locally raised soldiers. These units also fought alongside the Crown forces during major operations such as the French-Indian War of the 1750s. This second of a fascinating three-part study covers the militias and provincial troops raised in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, New York and New Jersey.