Arming The Militia - "In Order For Ye Country Service"

The connections between the 1777 march of the Convention Army and the Massachusetts militia are not limited to Middlesex County, including some who fought at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.  Militia from Essex County escorted the British column of the Convention Army from Saratoga to Prospect Hill in 1777, and faced off against the British Army, including the 47th Regiment of Foot, at the Battle of Bunker Hill.  

Massachusetts militiamen, whether they served in 1775 or in 1777, were expected to provide their own firearms.  Under the August 1777 call for men to support Major-General Horatio Gates at Saratoga, each man was to come equipped with "a good Fire Arm and also a Bayonet if to be had, Cartridge Box, Knapsack and Blanket, with 1/2 lb Powder, twenty Balls suitable for his Gun...".   In September, when more of the Massachusetts militia was mobilized, including those who would escort the Convention Army, those who volunteered or were drafted to serve were to march "accoutered according to the Law". [1] 

As tension grew in the months leading up to the start of the Revolutionary War, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress resolved on December 10, 1774: “... that each of the minute men, not already provided therewith, should be immediately equipped with an effective fire arm, bayonet, pouch, knapsack, thirty rounds of cartridges and balls, and that they be disciplined three times a week, and oftener, as opportunity may offer.” [2]  Despite this urging, not everyone who was willing to serve owned or had access to a suitable firearm.  On May 9, 1775, the Provincial Congress recommended that the selectmen of each town “... apply to such Inhabitants of their respective Towns and Districts as, in their Opinion, can best spare their Arms or Accoutrements, and to borrow or purchase the same for the Use of said Inhabitants so inlisted.” [3]

Two-hundred and fifty years ago, on May 12, 1775, the town of Ipswich, Massachusetts, issued Jonathan Pinder the receipt pictured above “... for a fire Arm & Bayonet, in order for the country service...”.  Samuel Beal, the borrower, had enlisted in Captain Abraham Dodge’s company of Colonel Moses Little’s regiment nine days earlier as a soldier in the “Army of Observation” which surrounded Boston after the Battle of Concord and Lexington. [4]  Beal was one of fifteen soldiers in Dodge’s company to receive a borrowed musket. [5]  

A month later, and two days before the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress passed another resolution calling for "... the inhabitants of the several towns and districts in the counties of Worcester, Hampshire, and other counties specified in a list hereunto annexed, who may have good and sufficient fire-arms and bayonets, be advised hereby, immediately to deposit the same with the respective town or district treasurers, to the number at least of so many in each town or district, as is specified in said list..."  Several towns which the Convention Army would pass through in 1777 were listed along with the number of firearms they were tasked to collect, demonstrating the widespread impact of the war on the state, namely:  "... County of Worcester. - Worcester, 30... Brookfield, 31... Leicester, 12; Spencer, 10... Northborough, 8... Shrewsbury, 22...  Hampshire [County]. - Springfield, 22; West Springfield, 23; Wilbraham, 10; Northampton, 22... Hadley, 9... Amherst, 10... Westfield, 16... Brimfield, 13... Blandford, 5; Palmer, 8... Belchertown, 8... Ware, 4... Worthington, 2; Chesterfield, 6...  Middlesex [County]. - Marlborough, 20...". [6]

Beal probably carried Pinder’s musket and bayonet at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775.  Dodge’s “entire company” from Little's regiment, which Beal served with, was one of those companies which: "... is said to have marched" and fought that day. [7] 

Four years later, in May of 1779, Ipswich’s selectmen delivered one of the town’s firearms to Pinder to replace the gun that Beal borrowed.  It’s not clear why Beal didn’t return Pinder’s musket and bayonet.  Several men from Ipswich serving in another company in Little’s regiment lost their muskets one way or another.  A history of Ipswich notes that in Captain Nathaniel Wade’s company: "At the battle of Bunker Hill on June 17th, 1775, … Philip Lord, a private in Capt. Wade's company lost his gun in the battle.".  Wade also recorded in his papers that in 1776: "Jeremiah Diskel Lost his Gun when sick on Board Ad'm. Hopkins fleet[;] … Joseph Pettengill Gun split by a shot Flatbush fight Left at port Green. Thomas Winters, Will'm Allen, Abraham Hodgins, John Caldwell, Ebenezer Staniford, Will'm Mansfield; all Lost there Guns in the Retreat on Long Island. James Brown's Gun Lost in the Battle on York Island. Mikel McGlathlen Deserted Carried of[f] his Gun. Francis Caldwell Gun taken with Gen'l Lee. Elisha Gould and Gun Join'd Capt. Gerrishes Comp’ny." [8]

Despite these challenges, the Massachusetts militia was fairly well armed at the start of the Revolutionary War.  A return dated April 14, 1775, noted that among the militia in Massachusetts there were 21,549 firearms on hand, of which 10,108, or 47%, had bayonets. [9]

Next Time: The Bunker Hill Connection - "Don't Fire Until You See The Whites Of Their Eyes" 

Last Time: April 20th 1775 - "We Went To Metomeny To See The Dead"  

For more on the Convention Army's 1777 march from Saratoga to Boston, see:

   1777 March Blog Home             Overnight Stopping Points        Towns and Villages Along the Way 

   General Whipple's Journal         Burgoyne in Albany                    Annotated Bibliography 

[1] "Resolve For Drafting One Sixth Part Of The Militia To Reinforce The Continental Army", Chapter 222, August 9, 1777, The Acts and Resolves Public and Private of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay (Boston, MA: Wright & Potter, 1918), 20:88-90.  "Resolve Providing For A Reinforcement To The Northern Army", The Acts and Resolves Public and Private of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, Chapter 307, September 22, 1777, 20:125-126. 

[2] Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts (Boston, MA: Dutton and Wentworth, 1838), 71.  The Provincial Congress did not revise the Massachusetts militia law until 1776: https://boston1775.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-massachusetts-militia-and-its.html
[3] Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, 209-210.

[4] Beal apparently did not serve in the Saratoga campaign, as the record for him indicates: “Beal, Samuel, Ipswich. Private, Capt. Daniel Rogers's co., which marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775; service, 4 days; also, Capt. Abraham Dodge's co., Col. Moses Little's regt.; muster roll dated Aug. 1, 1775; enlisted May 3, 1775; service, 12 weeks 6 days; also, company return dated Oct. 9, 1775; age, 25 yrs.; also, Capt. Dodge's co.. Col. Little's regt.; enlisted Jan. 1, 1776 [service not given].” Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, 1:849.

[5] Thomas Franklin Waters, Ipswich In The Massachusetts Bay Colony (Salem, MA: Newcomb & Gauss Printers, 1917), 2:323.

[6] Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, 336-337. 

[7] Charles E. Frye, Duty in the Cause of Liberty, "Method for Compiling Americans in the Battle of Breed’s Hill from the Rolls", accessed online at: https://dutyinthecauseofliberty.com/2021/03/09/americans-in-the-battle-of-breeds-hill-from-the-rolls/

[8] Waters, Ipswich In The Massachusetts Bay Colony, 2:325 and 334.

[9] Ray and Marie Raphael, The Spirit of ’74 (New York, NY: The New Press, 2015), 181.