By The Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, The New England Historic Genealogical Society, and The Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth of. This event took place after the Massachusetts General.Massachusetts Militia Companies and Officers in the Lexington Alarm (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2013), (Orig. Three weeks later, on 12 April, the General Court ordered the organization of a militia company in each town.This illustration depicts the first muster of Massachusetts Bay Colony militia in the spring of 1637. On 22 March 1631, the General Court all adult males to possess arms and to be prepared for military service.
Later the training requirement was lowered to one day a month.The battle is named after Bunker Hill in Charlestown, Massachusetts. The General Court ordered the militia to muster every Saturday for training. Men, between the ages of 16 to 60, were required to serve in the local militia unit, to furnish their own weapons such as a pike or musket, a sword, shot, powder and other military accouterments.
Massachusetts Colonial Militia Professional Soldier Brought
Noncommissioned officers, sergeants and corporals, as well as the company clerk were appointed by the captain. The officers were required to be freemen and were selected by the General Court to ensure they were good Puritans and loyal subjects. William Jennison was the first Watertown resident to command the Watertown Company of Foot on his appointment on 3 September 1635.The company consisted of three officers: captain, lieutenant and ensign who carried the company color and 60 enlisted men. He was a professional soldier brought over to train the militia and may not have lived in Watertown. Daniel Patrick was the first commander.
He was no doubt accompanied by several of his men. Jennison commanded an expedition to punish Indians living on Block Island in 1636. Training was fairly serious as the colony saw itself threatened by surrounding Indian tribes.Capt. Training consisted of highly-orchestrated drills designed for European warfare. The training day began and ended with the militia sermon conducted by the minister. The company mustered on the town green as this area was designated as the militia parade ground.
The Watertown company was assigned to the North Regiment. Cakebread later served as commander of the Dedham trainband.On 13 December 1636, the General Court ordered the organization of the North, South and East Regiments. Unlike the enrolled militia, the company was a volunteer militia unit that trained more often, studied military arts and science, and served as an early officer candidate school.
Training became routine as there was little or no threat either by Europeans or Indians. The militia was required to muster and drill eight times a year. From 1640 to 1674, additional militia laws were passed to strengthen the militia.
King Philip, the tribal chief, realized that this act had precipitated a war that neither side was prepared to fight.Militia companies had trained to fight European-style with 20 foot pikes designed to knock armored cavalrymen off horses and musketeers standing in close ranks. Indians realized that their way of life was threatened by encroaching English settlers.The war began in Swansea, Plymouth Colony, on 30 June 1675 when a band of Wampanoags burned and looted the village. The war was brutal and without quarter by either side. It included the militia of Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Plymouth and the New England Indian tribes.
Too often militia units were ambushed and incurred heavy casualties.Colonial military leaders realized that provisional active duty units had to be organized to fight the Indians. The militia ponderously marched single file through the woods without any reconnaissance or scouts familiar with the area. The militia was not prepared to fight Indians in thick forests.
The skirmish was inconclusive. Richard Beers, a prominent Watertown citizen and officer, commanded a troop of horse that engaged Indians on 25 August 1675 in the northwest corner of the colony, now present-day Whately. A number of Watertown militiamen accompanied him.Capt. David Henekman commanded an active duty foot company that marched to reinforce the Plymouth Militia in June 1675.
The militia force attacked the Indians who suffered a costly defeat in what was later called the Great Swamp Fight. A number of Watertown men were present. On 19 December, a joint colonial task force attacked the Indians who were defending a fort in present-day West Kingston. The Watertown detachment was forced to fall back after incurring a number of casualties.The colonists launched a major offensive against the Narragansetts in Rhode Island. On 21 September, a sizeable force of Watertown militiamen attempted to relieve the Sudbury militia which was under attack.
John Shorman, the former private wounded in 1675, commanded the Watertown Company of Foot composed of 151 musketeers. In a 1690 report sent to King William on the status of militia in Massachusetts Bay, Capt. Watertown contributed troopers to the 1st Middlesex Troop of Horse also organized in 1680. The Middlesex Regiment was reorganized in 1680 to consist of the 1st and 2d Middlesex Regiments with the Watertown Company assigned to the 1st. Watertown provided dozens of soldiers who saw action in this difficult war.One of the results of the war was the reorganization of the militia. PVT John Shorman of Watertown was wounded in action.The major fighting ended in the summer of 1676 with the death of King Philip.
However, things radically changed in 1774. There was little incentive to train the militia. Watertown men served in the provincial regiments stationed in New York during the French and Indian War (1755-1763).After the wars with France and no threat to Massachusetts Bay for the first time, militia training and readiness diminished. They took part in King George’s War (1744-1748) and participated in the expedition that captured the French fortress of Louisbourg in 1745. The Massachusetts expedition failed to capture Quebec at great financial cost to the colony.During Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713), Watertown militiamen were ordered to serve in expeditions against the French in Canada and against their Indian allies in Massachusetts and Maine.
Phineas Stearns and Ensign Edward Harrington. Also appointed were 1st Lt. At the town meeting held in the fall of 1774, it was voted to order ¼ of the militiamen to serve in the new minute company.The Watertown minute company was organized on 2 January 1775 under the command of Capt. The selectmen also paid for the construction of gun carriages to two cannon. He asked the selectmen to pay for gun powder and ball ammunition which they did for both companies. Jonathan Brown commanded one of the now two companies in Watertown.
The three Watertown companies were fairly well-equipped and the two enrolled companies were somewhat trained and prepared to take the field. Barnard had served on active duty as a private for two years.The minutemen honed their marksmanship skills so well that they were better marksmen then British regulars. Generally, the officers and sergeants were long-time militiamen some had served on active duty in one of the Massachusetts provincial regiments which served on the New York frontier. Minutemen were generally men in their 20s who had the time and interest to better their military skills if hostilities were to break out.
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