Crossword Genius

Civilian fighters lost in battle getting one fired (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

militia

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'civilian fighters lost' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.

'battle getting one fired' is the wordplay.
'battle' becomes 'mia' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'getting' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'fired' becomes 'lit' (set on fire).
'i'+'lit'='ilit'
'mia' enclosing 'ilit' is 'MILITIA'.

'in' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for militia that I've seen before include "Group of citizen soldiers" , "Fighting force of civilians" , "Citizen soldiery" , "Civilian soldiery" , "levy" .)

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