A few months of quiescence succeeded the Tigers’ nine months of duty in the 43d. Not until Aug., 1864, is there record of further activity. The war was drawing to a close, the nine-months regiments had been mustered out and the three-year commands were returning. Once more the ambition to have a “crack” regiment was stirring in Boston. Veteran and exempt members of the Tigers had formed the “Boston Lt. Inf. Assn.,” Nov. 1, 1862, during the absence of the active company. On this August date in 1864 the Light Infantry reorganized themselves as the “7th Infantry.” Maj. Charles O. Rogers, first commander of the 2d Battalion, was offered the colonelcy but declined; Daniel G. Handy was then elected, and received his commission on Nov. 6, 1865. (Col. Handy had been Maj. of the 12th Mass. in 1861 and 1862—indeed had been with the recruits in Ft. Warren when “John Brown’s Body” originated.) A vigorous attempt was made to form new companies and maintain the 7th at regimental standard.
The 7th Mass. Inf., a Taunton command, had made a noble name for itself during three years of hard service; and had been mustered out just before the Tiger 7th came into existence. The traditions connected with the number were certain to prove stimulating. But the choice of a number had further significance; it was a deliberate attempt to reproduce the New York 7th. Gilmore became band-leader, and it was hoped that his famous musicians would lend brilliancy to the new regiment. It was in his capacity as leader of the 7th Regiment band that Gilmore arranged and conducted his first “Peace Jubilee Festival” in 1869, with ten thousand singers and eight hundred instrumentalists in a “coliseum” seating fifty thousand, and not exceeded in size even by Billy Sunday’s tabernacle of 1916. Music by wholesale, this, and very different from the original classical “Peace Jubilee” in King’s Chapel, Feb. 22, 1815, from which Gilmore obtained the suggestion. New England liked it; and derived benefit from the popularization of good music. And the 7th received no little advertising.
Nine new companies came into existence within two years, mostly by the process of subdividing older commands, while the Tigers continued their organization as Co. A. Charles F. Harrington, former Captain of the Tigers, became colonel in 1869. Distinguished soldiers were willing to serve as company commanders in the 7th. B had for a Captain, Walter Scott Sampson, who had led the 7th Co. of Col. Cowdin’s regiment, the Washington Light Guard, into the 6th, and had commanded it (Co. K of the 6th) during its famous march thru Baltimore. Capt. Sampson had meanwhile been in command of a company in the 22d Mass. He was, in civil life, a successful Boston builder. E was commanded by no less a personage than Henry J. Hallgreen, war Captain of A or the Tiger Company in the 43d. A had for its Captain, David W. Wardrop, war Colonel of the 3d Reg. The entire regiment was quartered in a single armory, at Pine and Washington Sts. Co. B had developed by fission from Co. A in 1864 and was first called the Handy Guard or 32d Unattached Co. In 1869 so many veterans of the old Washington Light Guard joined Co. B that the Handy Guard became known as the Washington Light Guard. In 1873 the company transferred its headquarters from Boston to Cambridge, and, as part of the process, the name was again changed, becoming the Massachusetts Guards. Claim has been made that Co. B perpetuates the old original Washington Light Guard, and it also claims to be the Tigers, as truly as the 2d Company;—it exists today as the 6th Company, Mass. C. A. Gen. W. E. Lombard holds its older record books. The 7th Company, Mass. C. A., the Pierce Light Guard, came into existence as Co. E of the 7th; Henry L. Pierce after whom it was named donated $1,000 to the company treasury.
Young men, however, are more successful than veterans in maintaining the interest of an active regiment; and apathy concerning military matters characterized the public thinking during the years immediately following the war. By 1870 the 7th had only four live companies remaining; on July 20 of that year the regiment was reduced to a battalion. The Tigers now recovered their old regimental number—they became the “1st” Battalion, and Maj. Douglass Frazer commanded. The 1st Battalion was on duty in 1872 at the great Boston fire, and protected the most important section of all, the financial district along State Street.
Austin C. Wellington, formerly 1st Lieutenant in the 38th Mass., became captain of the Tiger Co. A in 1870, and with his advent began the era of prosperity and efficiency for which the Tigers had long been wishing. In 1873 Wellington became Major of the battalion, and on March 25, 1874, came a change in designation, bringing, after failure to get back their war number, 2d, the long-coveted numeral, “4th.” As an indication of how this ambition had persisted from ante-bellum days, we find the organization, in 1875, unofficially describing itself as the 4th Battalion “of Rifles.” In 1872 the “Maverick Rifles” had been organized as Co. D of this battalion; today they are the 11th Co., Mass. C. A.
It was the privilege of the Tigers, in 1875, to receive and entertain the Old Guard of New York City and the Washington Lt. Infantry of Charleston, South Carolina, the latter being the first southern military body to visit the north after the war. The following year the Tigers and Old Guard returned this courtesy, visiting Charleston and assisting in the celebration of the centennial of the battle of Fort Moultrie on June 28.
It was at once appreciated that Boston had a “crack” battalion and Maj. Wellington’s command was in great demand for parades and reviews. Its drill became a standard for other infantry bodies, while its striking quasi-Zouave uniform made such an impression upon the authorities that the costume was, in 1884, adopted as the State uniform. Such was the 4th Battalion which, on Dec. 3, 1878, by a process of consolidation, became part of the 1st Regiment.