Recently, a goblin camp appeared a short way from some of my houses.
Is there a way to pull them back? The “attack order” is good at getting them to go forward, but not avoiding combat. The “defend and rally” order also causes them to run to town, but not if they are in combat already.
It seems like my town might be doomed. Is there a way to train soldiers? Every footman I create eventually walks within eye sight of the camp and runs to her death. 
You can tell them to attack somewhere the enemy isn’t. The attack order will cause your guys to run to the flag and only attack enemies that come very close to the flag. If they happen to be far from the flag, they will leave combat. If the enemy runs from the flag, they will break off combat to return to the flag.
I recommend you just put an attack flag somewhere and take it out when they need to eat/sleep.
After you get more troops or hearthlings then you should try attacking. believe me, if you have 10 or more Hearthlings and the goblins have 6 or less, then your whole group of people can destroy the camp.
If they have around 10 goblins then wait for them to attack where you can take them down one by one.
I was very lucky with my first ever goblin camp because a group of undead killed the chief and some goblins! 
… i completed the goblin campaign (killed the chief and wolf camps) with 4 footmen in iron armor with bronze swords/maces, and that was at night when the undead were attacking 
I’m new to the game, but So far I am destroying all the goblin camps coming my way with just 3 Footman, each with random armor that I can find. 
Do you happen to know how much damage the goblin chief axe does?
Also this discussion is getting off topic 