Conscripted troops have often been more reliable than militia (in the days before the National Guard), but by and large, they have been as unwilling to fight as have the militia. The notable exceptions are the Great War and World War Two, when men were conscripted because volunteers did not come forward in sufficient numbers. Conscripted soldiers in those cases were placed in the same units as voluteers, and performed well.
By the way, militia could be used well, if the commander understood and used their limitations. At Hannah's Cowpens, Daniel Morgan went around to the militia campfires on the night before the battle and told them: "Just give me two good fires, and then you can skeedaddle." The next day, Tarleton sent his men foward, and the militia fired, reloaded, fired again, and ran like hell. The redcoats were momentarily stunned and briefly faltered, and then, seeing the militia running away, decided it was business as usual and ran forward, losing their cohesion. Morgan had reserved his Continentals on the reverse slope of a hill which was the center of his position, and they now charged over the hill in good order, with the bayonet (the only war in which the American soldier relied upon the bayonet), and scattered Tarleton's command, killing and wounding hundreds and rounding up most of the rest as prisoners. William Washington's dragoons came charging from behind the hill and scattered Tarleton's dreaded dragoons, permanently ending Tarleton's career. Banastre Tarleton had terrorized Georgia and the Carolinas for years, often hanging militiamen he captured. Hannah's Cowpen's and Guilford Courthouse were the beginning of the end for the English in America. At Guilford Courhouse, Nathaniel Greene relied too much on the militia, but they were steadier under his influence than they had been under Gates, and Cornwallis only won the battle when he turned his artillery on his own men, to stop the bayonet charge of the Continentals, which otherwise would have as surely destroyed his army as Morgan had done to Tarleton. Morgan knew the limitations of the militia, and exploited it rather than trying to make silk purses out of sow's ears.
I'm certainly not one to deride soldiers - whether they joined by choice or by force.
That's a good story and really true of life in general.
Knowing your own limitations and the limitations of those around you go a long ways to success of any kind.
Setanta~
I don't know what you do IRL, but I sincerely hope it involves the
teaching of or writing about history. You have a gift.
