It may be interesting to note some of the provisions and requirements that governed the militia during the Province period under the old act referred to. The act provided that all male persons from sixteen years of age to sixty, with certain exceptions, should bear arms and duly attend all musters and military exercises of the respective troops and companies wherein they were listed, allowing three months’ time to every son, next after his coming to sixteen years of age, and to every servant for the same period after his time was out, to provide themselves with arms, ammunition, etc. It also provided that, if any person liable to be listed as aforesaid—i.e., as a member of any troop or company, in the precinct or town where he resided—should avoid service by shifting from house to house or place to place, to avoid being listed as a member of a troop or company, he should be fined ten shillings for every offence, the money to be paid over to the company to which he belonged. Regimental musters, except in Boston, were to be held but once in three years; but the act provided that every captain, or chief officer, of a company or troop, should draw forth his company or troop four days annually, and no more; to exercise them in motions, the use of arms, and shooting at marks, or other military exercises. The punishment for any disorders or contempt committed by any member of a company on a training day or on a watch was to be by laying neck and heels, riding the wooden horse, or ten shillings’ fine. The exemptions from training included the members of the Council, the Representatives for the time being, the Secretary, Justices of the Peace, the President, Fellows, students, and servants of Harvard College, Masters of Art, ministers, elders and deacons of churches, sheriffs, physicians, surgeons, and professed schoolmasters, all such as had held commissions and served as field officers or captains, lieutenants or ensigns; coroners, treasurers, the Attorney-General, deputy sheriffs, clerks of courts, constables, constant ferrymen, and one miller to each gristmill. In addition there were exempted officers employed in connection with the Crown Revenue service, all masters of vessels of thirty tons and upwards, constant herdsmen, persons lame or otherwise disabled in body (on production of a certificate from two surgeons), Indians and negroes. It also provided that where any person could not provide his own arms, corn or other merchantable provision or vendable goods, to the extent of one-fifth part more than the value of the arms and ammunition, might be proffered to the clerk of the company, who was authorized to sell it and thus provide the person with the necessary arms. In case any were too poor to even supply merchandise, the arms were to be provided from the town stock. It also provided that a stock of powder and ammunition should be held in every town, and from time to time be renewed by the Selectmen. The necessary stock of powder, arms, and ammunition, was to be secured by a rate equally and justly laid upon the inhabitants and estates in such towns; and the rate for this purpose was collected by the constables, who were authorized, in case of non-payment, to distrain as for other rates. Under this act the militia of the Province were governed, and from the militia so authorized were raised the troops who formed the contingent of Provincials in the various expeditions against Canada, and proved their natural military capacity and their inherent quality as good soldiers at the siege of Louisburg, the expedition against Crown Point, and upon other occasions, as well as in various minor engagements with the Indian enemy upon the eastern and western frontiers of the Province.
After the events of the Stamp Act and when it became a certainty that the colonists could hope for nothing from the tyrannical ministry of Great Britain, and all thinking men faced the possibility of armed resistance to the mother country, it became necessary for those foreseeing the event and in the forefront of the Revolutionary party to provide a more elastic instrument and one more responsive to their urgent needs than could be looked for under the old militia act. Accordingly, in the first Provincial Congress, on the 26th of October, 1774, a committee appointed to consider what was necessary to be done for the defence and safety of the Province made a report upon which a resolve was immediately passed, making provision for the appointment of a Committee of Safety, who were empowered and directed to alarm, muster, and cause to be assembled, with the utmost expedition, such and so many of the militia of the Province, completely armed and equipped, as they might judge necessary for any contingency they might be called upon to confront. Provision was made for the pay and subsistence of any force that might be so assembled, and for the appointment of general officers, inasmuch as some of the officers holding commissions under crown appointments might have, and no doubt did hold, what were at the time conservative opinions concerning the causes that had led to the bitter feeling between the people of the Colonies and the ministers of Great Britain. It was resolved that such companies as had not already chosen officers should do so forthwith; and, where said officers should judge the districts included within the regimental limits too extensive, they should divide them and adjust their limits, and proceed to elect field officers to command the regiments, so called. The effect of this action, when carried out, was to practically redistrict the whole militia of the Province, and provide them with company officers and field officers that were in sympathy with the popular feeling; and this change took effect upon the initiative of what was practically a convention of delegates from the people, who had assembled in response to a call to take measures to save the Province from what they considered violation of their rights and privileges, and from aggressive militarism.
THE MINUTE-MEN: WHAT THEY WERE
It was at the same time provided that one-quarter, at least, of the respective companies in every regiment should be formed into companies of fifty privates at the least, who were to equip and hold themselves in readiness to march at the shortest notice from the Committee of Safety upon any emergency. Each company so formed was to choose a captain and two lieutenants, and they were to be grouped in battalions to consist of nine companies each and the captains and subalterns of each battalion were to elect field officers to command them. These were the minute-men, and were organized under this resolve, nearly six months before the affair of April 19, 1775; and the promptness with which they assembled in response to the alarm upon that memorable occasion is thereby accounted for. The foregoing statement will also serve to explain what has been a matter of confusion to many people; namely, the distinction between minute-men and militia. The minute-men, while of the militia, were, for a short time at the beginning of the war, a distinct body under a separate organization. A minute-man was a member of the militia who had engaged himself, with others, to march at a moment’s warning; while a militiaman was one who had not so engaged, and yet was equally liable to be called upon for service, when the Committee of Safety should deem it necessary to order out the militia. It happened, therefore, that companies of minute-men and companies of militia from the same town responded under different commanders to the alarm of April 19, 1775. The service of one was as patriotic as that of the other; but the minute-men were under special engagement to hold themselves in readiness to march at a moment’s warning, and you may assume that they were, as a rule, the youngest, most active, and most patriotic members of their respective communities.
In December, 1774, a patriotic address by the committee on the state of the Province was accepted by the Provincial Congress, and a copy thereof sent to all the towns and districts in the Province. In this address after a recital of the grievances and oppressions laid upon the people, and of the necessity of guarding their rights and liberties, it was recommended that particular care should be taken by each town and district to equip each of the minute-men not already provided therewith with an effective firearm, bayonet, pouch, knapsack, thirty rounds of ball cartridges and that they be disciplined three times a week and oftener, as opportunity might offer. The militia in general were also not to be neglected, and their improvement in training and drill was strongly recommended. Thus early before open hostilities were declared did the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts take prompt and energetic measures to place themselves upon a military footing, so as not to be taken at a disadvantage when the shock of armed strife should occur.
The second Provincial Congress in February, 1775, confirmed the powers of the Committee of Safety, to whom all military matters were directly intrusted, repeated the recommendations of the previous Congress relative to the militia, and appointed four general officers. The commanding officer of each regiment of minute-men, as well as the colonels of the militia regiments, were recommended to review their respective commands and to make return of their number and equipment. Six days before the 19th of April the Committee of Safety was authorized to form six companies of the train artillery already provided by the Colony, to immediately enter upon a course of discipline and be ready to enter the service whenever an army should be raised.
The events of the historic 19th of April, 1775, brought matters to a crisis more rapidly than had been anticipated; and, following that incursion of the British troops (excursion it is sometimes called in the quaint language of the day, although one would hardly term it a pleasant one), the Provincial Congress resolved that an army of 13,600 men should be raised immediately by the Province of Massachusetts Bay. A few days later it was moved and passed that the companies in each regiment should consist of fifty-nine men, including three officers, and that each regiment should consist of ten such companies.
The militia and minute-men, as reorganized and prepared in accordance with the directions of the Provincial Congress, responded with marvelous promptitude when the call to arms came. Within ten days after the battle of Lexington between fifteen and twenty thousand men had assembled at Cambridge and Roxbury. But it was an armed assemblage rather than an army. There was practically no cohesion beyond the company organization. They were not accustomed to act with other units as battalions or regiments. There was no term or limit of service prescribed or that could be required of these men that came forward in response to the alarm. Their own patriotic fervor or the persuasiveness of their officers made the measure of their stay in the service. It was, in consequence, a fluctuating force from day to day, with arrivals and departures in constant progress. The problems involved in making it a united or cohesive force for either aggression or defence would drive the modern military man frantic. Yet of necessity this force had to serve as the nucleus of the army it was proposed to raise to serve for eight months or to December 31, 1775.
The method of recruiting seems odd in these days, but in reality it was simple enough and was effective at the same time. “Beating orders,” as they were called, were issued to captains and lieutenants, or rather to those desiring to be commissioned in such capacities; and, upon their securing the specified number of men agreeing to serve under them, they were accepted with their men, and their commissions assured to them. In this way the men practically chose their officers, while at the same time each officer in a regiment from the colonel down became his own recruiting officer, captains and lieutenants in order to fill up their company strength, and colonels in order to obtain their full quota of companies. No commissions were issued to any regiment until it was completed. It was this practice that caused several New Hampshire companies to be embodied in Massachusetts regiments.
The effectiveness of this method of enlistment can best be judged by the fact, officially verified, that commissions had been issued to the officers of fifteen regiments, they having at that time the proper complement of men. It could not be expected, under the conditions that prevailed, that an army so hastily gotten together and formed from small local organizations, totally unused to acting in masses under any military system as regiments or brigades, should have presented, either in the matter of discipline or equipment, anything that would commend itself to the trained military man. One thing, however, all those who had assembled, whether as minute-men or militia, possessed in common; and that was the patriotic determination to resist by every means in their power any further encroachment upon their rights and liberties. A goodly number of the recruits and many of the officers had served in the expeditions against Canada; and these were sufficient to leaven the mass, and communicate by example and precept something of the military spirit to their younger comrades who had never rendered service in the field. At that time the army was a Massachusetts army, and in fact it is so termed in the official documents. The regiments were really what would be designated in these days as State regiments, being enlisted, officered, and maintained entirely by Massachusetts. There was no lack of officers of the higher grades, as there were provided in addition to the general officers previously named as having been appointed in making the establishment for the organization of the army, May 23, 1775, one lieutenant-general, two major-generals, four brigadier-generals, two adjutant-generals, and two quartermaster-generals.