CHAPTER VI.

MILITARY HISTORY.

THE life of the New-England colonists was beset with dangers, and was disturbed by continually recurring warfare. They were liable to attacks from the Indians who surrounded them, and, from time to time, were exposed to incursions by the hostile French from the North, supported by their savage allies. They had also to take their part in offensive warfare; and the resources of the colonists, in men and money, were heavily taxed to raise armies for that purpose.

In 1630 the first tax levied on the inhabitants of Medford was in the sum of £3, for the payment of two instructors in military tactics, a prophetic beginning. Every man became by necessity a soldier, and was expected to stand ready for effective service.

The legal equipment of a soldier was as follows:

"A musket (firelock or matchlock), a pair of bandoleers, a powderpouch, with bullets, a sword, a belt, a worm, a scourer, a rest, and a knapsack. His pay, 18s. a month, and diet, and pillage; and his town to provide him with a month's provisions; viz., thirty pounds of biscuits, twelve of pork, twenty of beef, and one half-bushel of pease or meal. The leader was to receive 40s. per month. The towns were to bear their share of the loss of arms. A list of the men and their arms was to be handed in to the court."

The bandoleer was a shoulder-belt, used for supporting the gun and other heavy equipments. The firelock had a flint-lock; the matchlock was discharged by the application of a lighted match, or fuse.

It will give us some idea of the military habits and customs of the people when we read the following law, passed July 26, 1631, and the records of subsequent regulations:

"Ordered that every first Friday in every month, there shall be a general training of them that inhabit Charlestown, Mistick, and

the Newtown, at a convenient place about the Indian wigwams; the training to begin at one of the clock in the afternoon."

"March 22, 1631: General Court. Ordered that every town within this jurisdiction shall, before the 5th of April next, take especial care that every person within their town (except magistrates and ministers), as well servants as others, be furnished with good and sufficient arms.'

2. Aug. 7, 1632: It is ordered that the captains shall be maintained (on parade days) by their several companies."

"March 4, 1635: It is ordered that from this day forward the captains shall receive maintenance out of the treasury, and not from their companies."

In 1635 the men of Medford, Cambridge, and Charlestown, formed one company.

"Nov. 20, 1637: It was ordered that training should be kept eight times in a year, at the discretion of the chief officers. Magistrates and teaching elders are allowed each of them a man free from trainings; and the deacons of the several churches are freed in like manner."

At this early period none were allowed to vote for military officers, except freemen and they "who have taken the oath of residents." Freemen had a right to vote in these elections, although they were not enrolled as members of the trainband. Officers must be freemen, since none others were eligible to offices in the State.

The captain was required to take oath. The fines gathered were to be expended in buying drum-heads for the company and arms for poor men. Ship-carpenters, fishermen, and millers were excused from training. Millers were excused, because, in tending tide-mills, they were often obliged to be at work through the night.

The regulations of the town were very strict in all matters that related to the public safety; and we find among the ancient records, the following statements of precautionary measures adopted in those times:

"March 9, 1637: This day certain persons were appointed in Medford, as watchers of the Indians and wild beasts.

"All watchers shall come to the public assemblies with their muskets fit for service."

"No person shall travel above one mile from his dwelling-house without some arms, upon pain of 12d. for every default.”

In 1637 two hundred men, as soldiers, were to be raised in Massachusetts. The following towns furnished numbers in proportion to their population: Boston, 26;

Salem, 18; Saugus, 16; Ipswich, 17; Newbury, 8; Roxbury, 10; Hingham, 6; Medford, 3.

May 14: "Ordered that there shall be a watch of two a night kept in every plantation till the next general court."

June 2, 1641: "Ordered that all the out-towns shall each of them have a barrel of gunpowder."

Sept. 15, 1641: On this day began a "muster," which lasted two days; twelve hundred soldiers. And though there was "plenty of wine and strong beer," yet "no man was drunk, no oath was sworn, no quarrel, no hurt done."

Sept. 7, 1643: The General Court thus say:

"It is agreed that the military commanders shall take order that the companies be trained, and some man, to be appointed by them, in each town, to exercise them."

"Arms must be kept in every family."

These warlike preparations show the dangerous surroundings of the early settlers: and they must have considered themselves not only members of the Church militant, but citizens of the State militant. This is still more clearly shown by subsequent orders, among which were the following:

"May 14, 1645: Ordered that all children within this jurisdiction, from ten to sixteen years of age, shall be instructed by some one of the officers of the band, or some other experienced soldier, whom the chief officer shall appoint upon the usual training-days, in the exercise of arms, as, small guns, half-pikes, bows and arrows, according to the discretion of said officer."

1647: "Persons unable to provide arms and equipments for militia duty on account of poverty, if he be single, and under thirty years of age, shall be put to service, and earn them. Musqueteers, among their articles of equipment, are to have two fathoms of match."

"Whoever refuses to do duty, when commanded, shall be fined five shillings."

May 2, 1649: The General Court issue the following:

"It is ordered that the selectmen of every town within this jurisdiction shall, before the 24th of June, which shall be in the year 1650, provide for every fifty soldiers in each town a barrel of good powder, one hundred and fifty pounds of musket bullets, and one-quarter of a hundred of match."

May 26, 1658: The General Court say,

"In answer to the request of the inhabitants of Meadford, the Court judgeth it meet to grant their desire; i. e., liberty to list themselves

in the trainband of Cambridge, and be no longer compelled to travel unto Charlestown."

As several of Mr. Cradock's men were fined at different times for absence from training, we infer that the military exercises required by law were very strictly observed in Medford; and how it could have been otherwise, after so many special laws and regulations, we do not see. It seemed a first necessity of their forest-life, to protect themselves from the wily Indian and the hungry bear. These military preparations were not suspended for a century. As late as Aug. 4, 1718, the inhabitants of Medford voted £10 to buy powder for their defence against the Indians.

"Every person enlisting in the troop is required to have a good horse, and be well fitted with saddle, etc.; and, having listed his horse, he shall not put him off without the consent of his captain."

The powder and balls belonging to the town were not deposited always in the same place; and, March 3, 1746, "Voted that Capt. Samuel Brooks shall have the keeping of the town's stock of ammunition."

1668: This year the Court took a step which was not popular. They resolved to exercise the power which they thought they possessed; viz., of nominating all the military officers. The taking away of "so considerable a part of their so-long-enjoyed liberty" met with decided opposition; and, when our Medford company was organized, the town did not allow the Court to nominate the officers.

Up to this time, we hear little of "musters;" and we presume that large assemblies of soldiers at one place were not common. The military organization must necessarily have been very simple and limited at first; and the idea of "divisions," "battalions," "regiments," as with us, must have been of a much later period.

One fact, however, is clear; and that is, that these habitual preparations for defence and war gradually educated the colonists to that personal courage and military skill which rendered them so powerful in their war with Philip, and thus prepared them for achieving the victories of the Revolution.

This deep interest in military affairs made our forefathers wakefully anxious on the subject of the election of officers in the train bands. It was an event in which every person in town, male and female, felt that his or her safety

might be deeply concerned. The law carefully guarded! the rights of the people in this act; and, therefore, did not leave so important a trust to be conferred by the members: of the company alone, but made it the duty of the whole town to choose the three commanding officers. On the first occasion when this power was to be exercised by the whole town, the selectmen issued a warrant for a meeting of all the inhabitants who had a right to vote. The warrant was dated May 18, 1781, and was issued "in the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for the purpose of choosing militia officers, as set forth in the Militia Act." This was the sole business of the meeting. The result was as follows:

Here appears the great democratic principle of popular election of military leaders, wherein the majority of voters decide the whole case.

It was customary for the newly elected officer not only to "treat the company," but to treat everybody else who repaired to his house at the appointed time. These were deemed the occasions in which freedom was liberally interpreted. Meat and bread were provided for food; but punch and flip were furnished in such overflowing abundance, that some visitors took many more steps in going home than in coming. It was expected, moreover, that the captain would treat his soldiers on parade-days. This item, added to other necessary expenses, made quite a draught on the chief officer's purse, as well as time.

Although we have recorded the organization of a military corps in 1781, whose officers were chosen by the town, according to the laws then existing, there were soldiers in Medford from 1630 to that time. What the exact rules and regulations respecting enlistment were in the middle of the seventeenth century, we cannot discover. There were composition companies; and the associations. were often accidental, according to contiguity of place. They in Medford, who were "watchers," were soldiers; and the annual provision of town powder shows that the ammunition was used. There was a company of militia in Medford before the Revolution; and, when troublesome times came, they were ready for duty. It was the eighth