Clothing & Accoutrements
EQUIPMENT
OF MASSACHUSETTS MILITIA
AND MINUTE MEN IN THE 18TH CENTURY.
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Alexander R. Cain
Lexington Minute Men
(Reprinted
with permission)
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Unlike the
British counterpart, there was no uniform issuance of equipment.
Militiamen of Massachusetts acquired their weapons from a variety of
sources:
Inheritance,
the French and Indian War, the Siege of Louisbourg and from willing British
soldiers stationed in Boston. However, throughout the colony’s history,
Massachusetts towns made some attempts to bring some semblance of uniformity to
its militia companies. Militia laws and resolves were passed, although often with
little success. The end result was a widespread mixture of French, British
and American weapons and equipment.
Below are
various accounts, regulations and laws regarding the use of militia weapons and
equipment.
1. "Each soldier to
provide himself with a good fire arm, a steel or iron ram rod and a spring for
same, a worm, a priming wire and brush, a bayonet fitted to his gun, a scabbard
and belt thereof, a cutting sword or tomahawk or hatchet, a . . .cartridge box
holding fifteen rounds . . . at least, a hundred buckshot, six flints, one pound
of powder, forty leaden balls fitted to the gun, a knapsack and blanket, [and] a
canteen or wooden bottle to hold one quart [of
water]" (Journal of Arthur Harris of the Bridgewater Coy of
Militia.)
2.
"A firelock, bayonet, waistbelt, a cartridge box, cartridges, and a
knapsack." ("An Easy Plan of Discipline for a
Militia", Timothy Pickering, p. 1-4.)
3. "Militia minutemen [who were to] hold themselves in readiness at a minutes warning, compleat in arms and ammunition; that is to say a good and sufficient firelock, bayonet, thirty rounds of powder and ball, pouch and knapsack." (Town of Roxbury Resolves, December 26, 1774.)
4.
“The Third Bristol County Militia Regiment wanted their men to have the
following at muster: "a good firearm with steel or iron ramrod, and spring
to retain the same, a worm, priming wire and brush, and a bayonet fitted to his
gun, a tomahawk or hatchet, a pouch containing a cartridge box that will hold
fifteen rounds of cartridges at least, a hundred of buckshot, a jack knife, and
tow for wadding, six flints, one pound of powder, forty leaden balls fitted
to his gun, a knapsack and blanket, a canteen or wooden bottle sufficient to
hold one quart.” (Continental Journal and weekly adviser, January 22, 1778)
5.
Another early company document mentions “a powderhorn, a bullet pouch
to contain 40 leaden balls, a knapsack, a canteen, a firearm of good worth, a
haversack,a belt, a good pair of overalls.” (Boston Gazette May 26, 1777)
6.
"List of Men & accouterments of Each man [illegible words]
Regiment in Bristol County [Massachusetts]" from private collection.
Dated 1776: "Men including officers - 678, Firearms - 446, Ramrods - 129,
Springs - 9, Worms - 160, Priming wires - 193, Brushes - 138, Bayonets - 175,
Scabbards - 142, Belts - 181, Cutting swords & hatchets - 255, Cartridge box
and powder - 274, Buckshot - 10373, Jackknives - 403, Tow for men - 258 flints
for men - 2084, pounds powder - 244 1/2, Bullets - 11934, Knapsack - 365,
Blankets - 386, Canteens - 295"
7.
Massachusetts militia men were required to fall out with “his firelock
in good repair, four pounds of lead in bullets, fitted to the bore of his piece,
four flints, a cutlass or tomahawk, a good belt round his body, a canvas
knapsack to hold a bushel, with a good matumpline, fitting easy across the
breast and shoulders, good clothing, etc.” (Source undated and unknown,
but original shown to Henry Cooke by Peter Oakley in 1995.)
8.
The Town of Braintree required each soldier to furnish himself with “a
good fire lock,
bayonett, cartouch box, one pound
of powder, twenty-four balls to fitt their guns, twelve flints and a
knapsack.” (Town of Braintree Resolves, January 23, 1775.)
9.
As militiamen from the village of Lynn marched off to war, an observer
noted “[one man with] a long fowling piece, without a bayonet, a horn of
powder, and a seal-skin pouch, filled with bullets and buckshot. . . Here an old
soldier carried a heavy Queen’s arm with which he had done service at the
conquest of Canada twenty years previous, while by his side walked a stripling
boy with a Spanish fusee not half its weight or calibre, which his grandfather
may have taken at the Havana, while not a few had old French pieces, that dated
back to the reduction of Louisbourg.” (History of Lynn, p. 338)
10. Massachusetts provincial soldiers were issued the following items throughout the French and Indian War: “Canteen, Wooden bottle one hoop” (Massachusetts Historical Society, Journal of the House of Representatives, vol. 35, p. 287 and 335); “Knapsacks” Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay, p. 313); “Arms and Cartridge Boxes” (“Diary Kept at Louisbourg, 1759-1760, by Jonathan Procter of Danvers”, p. 70)