Also on September 1, 1775, the Third Provincial Congress authorized the creation of six battalions of "Minute Men" for a duration of six months. North Carolina legislators were not too keen on the decades-old process of mustering local militias that were generally considered not all that effective anyway.

Each "battalion" of Minute Men were to consist of ten companies of fifty men each, and these were to be trained for fourteen days, then mustered once per fortnight. The six battalions were to be established in each of the six existing judicial districts - Edenton, Halifax, Hillsborough, New Bern, Salisbury, Wilmington. This was a "standing army" paid full time by the Province.

This "new concept" did not continue past the originally planned six-month duration. With two regiments of Provincial Troops placed on the Continental Line, and a request for more Continentals, along with the overall populace chronically calling the Minute Men as "militia," the General Assembly gave in and resolved to establish new rules for the militia. After disbanding, each of these six "battalions" were almost immediately re-established as militia regiments.

At the battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in February of 1776, the previously unwanted Militia acquitted themselves so well that the General Assembly reconsidered their previous stance and dropped the Minute Men in favor of each county creating militia units.

When Lord Cornwallis entered North Carolina in January of 1781 to pursue Brig. Gen. Daniel Morgan, Governor Abner Nash ordered a regiment of two hundred mounted infantry to be raised. He gave command to Col. Marquis Francis de Malmedy, Marquis of Bretagne. This regiment did not reach the rest of the Continental Army under Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene until two days after the battle of Guilford Courthouse.

This regiment, the NC Dragoons, also acquitted themselves very well at the battle of Eutaw Springs in South Carolina during September of 1781.