"Waoh but we beat the British with our American spunk!!!!"

Explanation: In US founding mythology, the ‘minutemen’, part-time militia, are often afforded a disproportionately large role in winning the Revolutionary War against the British.

… but as George Washington himself noted, “To place any dependence on Militia, is, assuredly resting upon a broken staff.” American militia were notoriously unreliable and ineffective, and their saving grace was that they were often lodged up against other, equally ineffective Loyalist militia. Battles wherein the American militiamen were the primary force involved could end after casualties in the double or even single digits. “Freedom or death” my ass.

Most of the actual fighting was done by the Continental Army, which was a fairly proper military force, made up by volunteers who signed up for set enlistment periods and were put under institutions which imposed organization and training standards, especially after the German-American General Friedrich Wilhelm Von Steuben reformed the Continental Army’s structure and doctrine.

That being said, there is a hint of truth to the lionization of the American militia - even if they weren’t particularly effective soldiers, being willing to show up to an actual war and get shot at is, itself, a pretty firm expression of support, which, given the purportedly democratic ethos of the American Revolution, the Revolutionaries were quick to highlight.

Not only that, but some militia did have outsized effect compared to their numbers - namely, sharpshooters with the American long rifle - considered, before the Revolutionary War, to be almost entirely a hunting weapon. After the Revolutionary War, even European powers would scramble to adopt variants of it for military skirmishers. But sharpshooters equipped with rifles were a tiny minority of American militia, most of whom had smoothbore muskets of varying quality.

Traditional European short rifles were made for ease-of-aiming for nobility while hunting, without sacrificing the range or accuracy of a longer smoothbore, around ~100 yards. Nice to have, but hardly a vital addition to a military arsenal when most enemy troops are marching in massive, hard-to-miss formations anyway. American long rifles were made for nailing animals at 300+ yards, and American sharpshooters pulling off the novel feat of plinking British officers at a distance so significant that the Brits literally had no means of response was… immensely demoralizing in multiple battles.