I had an enemy stack approaching one of my cities and filled it up with 8 slave militias and lastly added a light horse unit as the 9th. That enemy AI attacked the city and my light horse unit never appeared in that combat. 2 city defenders and 8 slave militias participated in the combat and won.
Afterward, my light horse unit was gone. No where to be found. The one slave militia said it was composed of 17 members, not the expected 4 members. A few other slave militias who survived the combat were also in the city.
I moved 6 of these surviving militias out of the city and they somehow duplicated. Becoming 3 groups of 6 militias.