I don't know much about my ancestors military past other than some of them in WWI, I do know though that 2 of my great grandfathers (both called John) signed the Posse Comitatus act, here is a little history about that:
Under the Defence of the Realm Act , lists known as "Posse Comitatus" lists and "Levee en Masse" lists were made in 1798 and 1803/04 respectively. These Defence Lists, despite their name, were not lists of those intended for military service. Their intention was to organise reserves of men not already serving in a military capacity for the defence of Britain against a French invasion. They would have been needed to evacuate the civilian population, remove wildstock and crops from the path of the invaders, gather arms and equipment and deal with food supplies to the forces and civilian population.
So in 1798, my great grandfathers were a part of this initiative. Other than that I don't really know my family's 19th Century & 18th Century military lives. Admittedly though I know almost nothing about my mothers side of the family except some of them came to Britain from Germany in the 1860's before the unification.
