Consequently the 1st Regiment welcomed the new state muster-field, first opened for use in 1873. Framingham at once became a synonym for increased efficiency; that very year the tour of camp duty was lengthened from three to four days, and from time to time thereafter successful effort was made to secure further extension. Massachusetts had the proud honor of leading all other states in providing a regular state camp-ground.
Perhaps because so many “old fellows” were bidding farewell to active military life, perhaps for other reasons, this was an age of sentimentalism in the regimental history. On Dec. 17, 1873, the 1st Company adopted a badge or medal for use with full-dress uniforms and also on civilian clothes; and other companies were so favorably impressed by the innovation as to imitate it. Col. Mathews later designed the regimental emblem which stands on the cover of this book, and which is based on the “white diamond” of the old “third corps.”
Capt. William A. Smith of the 1st Company was an enthusiast about rifle-shooting; and kept agitating the matter with a view to inducing Massachusetts to take it up. Already England had her ranges for volunteers, and in New York the Creedmoor range was in active operation. Capt. Smith presented many excellent reasons why small arms practice should be made part of the militia requirements. In Colonial days every farmer was a good shot—he had to be, in order to keep down “varmints” and to keep off Indians. But when the state became fully settled the reason for popular skill in shooting ceased, and the shooting itself was discontinued. Thruout the Civil War, marksmanship was a neglected factor in the training of both northern and southern armies. By 1875 the need had become so crying that Capt. Smith and others succeeded in convincing the Massachusetts authorities. As soon as genuine rifle competitions were authorized, the members of the regiment, and especially of the 1st Company, stirred themselves to render the matches exciting; as a consequence, up to the time the regiment became interested in artillery, it was noted in the state for success in small arms competitions. From the 1st Company alone went out two such shots as Col. Horace T. Rockwell and Major Charles W. Hinman, both of whom had places on rifle teams which went to England and represented America in international matches held in 1880, 1883 and 1888. After 1878 the 4th and 12th Companies also won fame with the rifle.
The annual routine of a militia regiment—weekly drills, two or more field-days, shooting, one or two weeks’ camp, etc.—keeps the members busy along useful lines. But it does not afford a historian much to tell, save as he indicates the steps of progress from year to year. Parades, on the other hand, possess some romantic and popular interest; and it is hard to convince laymen that they have almost no military value. A regiment is largely judged by its appearance on parade. In Col. Wilson’s time there chanced to be included the fateful year, 1875, when eastern Massachusetts celebrated the centennials of Concord and Bunker Hill. With President Grant present from Washington on April 19, there were “great doings.” On June 17 the “crack”-est military organizations from other states visited Boston to lend “tone” to the procession,—the 7th N. Y., the 5th Md., the 1st R. I., the 1st and 2d Pa. That day Gen. W. T. Sherman was reviewing officer. Sherman’s war experience had trained him to judge troops. He was forced to admit that Boston’s parade was a fine military display; and he had to add that the 1st Mass. was not behind the best. On Nov. 29, 1875, by a singular coincidence, Col. Wilson was called upon to parade his regiment as part of the funeral escort for his great namesake, the late Vice-President Henry Wilson, who was interred at Natick.
At first the regiment suffered from the new innovations. Its older members, trained in the hard school of actual war service were capable soldiers and required little instruction; and the younger men who needed more training were only a minority in point of numbers. As soon as it became evident that more time was going to be demanded for encampments and for small-arms practice, many older soldiers applied for their discharges. As the ranks grew shorter and thinner, the state authorities began to talk of disbanding companies, just as they had always been accustomed to do. Finally the break came. Col. Wilson resigned on April 28, 1876, leaving Lt. Col. Alfred N. Proctor in command; and on the following July 6, the regiment was reduced to the dimensions of a battalion and was redesignated the “1st Battalion of Infantry.” Lt. Col. Nathaniel Wales, who was placed in command, was a Civil War veteran with a brilliant record. He had enlisted as a private soldier, had served in the 24th Regiment, the 32d, and finally in the 35th, and came out of the war-service a Colonel. It is highly unusual to pass thru so many grades within less than four short years. Furthermore, Col. Wales was said to have been the youngest man holding the rank of Colonel at the time he attained it. His love for the 1st Regiment was such that he was willing to endure a reduction of rank for the sake of re-establishing the old command upon a secure basis.
A company of the 3d Regiment, the Cunningham Rifles from Brockton, were transferred to the 1st Battalion at the time of the reorganization and became the 10th Company. This reorganization was by no means limited to the 1st Regiment—it was state-wide in its incidence. The 1st Battalion emerged from it as a six-company organization.
One or more companies of the 1st made the trip to the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876, and to the Valley Forge Centenary the year following. On Sept. 17, 1877, the battalion participated in the parade and ceremonies connected with the dedication of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ monument on Boston Common. The companies presented a fine appearance in the eyes of the public; and following the celebration dined together much to their own gratification. New members enlisted, new interest began to be manifest, and there was a feeling that the present reduced condition would be only temporary. Col. Wales of course exerted all of his influence to have the regiment restored.
Finally the legislature responded and passed an act creating a 1st Regiment by a process of consolidation. There were four companies left of the 3d Regiment, then forming the 3d Battalion. And four companies represented what had originally been the old 1st Infantry of ante-bellum days, now organized as the 4th Battalion. So the legislature transferred the Fusiliers and the Claflin Guards to the 5th, the Chelsea Rifles to the 8th, and consolidated the 1st Battalion, the 3d Battalion and the 4th Battalion, as the “1st Regiment,” Col. Nathaniel Wales commanding. The date of this important legislation was Dec. 3, 1878. By a stroke of genius the law-makers had created a twelve-company regiment, organized in three battalions each under command of a Major; and had devised a new plan of organization which was destined to work so well that, twenty years later, Congress would adopt it for use all over the United States. As the companies from the 3d Regiment were located in Plymouth and Bristol counties, they introduced a new geographical element into the 1st. Thereafter “The Cape” was to stand side by side with Boston, and right nobly were the Cape companies to uphold the regimental traditions.