But I found a picture of my brother, dressed as a Minuteman, and one of me in a suit. Their experience was an irregular war. Many were familiar with border hunting. [6] The Indian Wars, and in particular the recent French and Indian Wars, had taught colonial masters the value of irregular warfare, while many English troops newly arrived from Europe were less familiar with it. The long rifle was also well suited for this role. The rifle (grooves in the barrel) gave it a much greater range than the smoothbore musket, although loading took much longer. Due to the lower rate of fire, rifles were not used by regular infantry, but preferred for hunting. If they appeared as skirmishes, the militia could fire and retreat under cover or behind other troops before the British could get within range. The wild terrain, which lay directly behind many colonial towns, favored this style of fighting and was very familiar to the local Minuteman. Over time, however, loyalists such as John Butler and Robert Rogers assembled equally capable irregular forces (Butler`s Rangers and Queen`s Rangers, led by Englishman John Graves Simcoe). In addition, many British commanders learned from experience and effectively modified their light infantry tactics and combat clothing to North American conditions.
The British and French, each with Indian allies, fought various battles beginning in 1689, which lasted nearly a hundred years. In 1690, Colonel William Phips led 600 men to repel the French. Two years later, he became governor of Massachusetts. When the French and Indians invaded Massachusetts in 1702, Governor Phips created a bounty that paid 10 shillings each for Indian scalps. In 1703, snowshoes were distributed to militiamen and bounty hunters to make winter raids on the Indians more effective. The Minuteman concept was developed by the Snowshoe Men. Behind it is Concord with its bridge, fountain and bronze Minuteman. The need for efficient Minuteman companies was illustrated by the powder alarm of 1774. Militia companies were called in to resist the British troops sent to capture the ammunition depots. By the time the militia was ready, the British regulars had already captured weapons at Cambridge and Charlestown and returned to Boston. Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article on minuteman He is a kind of intellectual minuteman in his community, always ready to deliver something interesting and fun to any newcomer.
For the rest of the revolution, militias adopted the Minuteman model of rapid mobilization. With this rapid gathering of troops, the militia proved its worth by temporarily reinforcing the Continental Army, sometimes leading to numerical superiority. This was seen in the battles of Hubbardton and Bennington to the north and Camden and Cowpens to the south. Cowpens is notable in that Daniel Morgan skillfully used the militia`s strengths and weaknesses to achieve the double envelope of Tarleton`s forces. Minuteman, in the history of the United States, a militia of the American Revolution, who agreed to be ready for military service “with a minute of warning”. The Minuteman wanted to return to a normal life and his family. The US Air Force has named the LGM-30 intercontinental ballistic missile “Minuteman”, designed for rapid deployment in the event of a nuclear attack. The LGM-30G “Minuteman III” remains in service. Continental Army regulars then received European-style military training during the American Revolutionary War, but militias did not receive much. They were better off when used as irregulars rather than fighting formal battles in the dense lines and traditional columns that functioned primarily as skirmishes and snipers. In conjunction with the Continental regulars, the militia often fired irregular salvos from a front line or from the flanks of the Continental Army, while the Continental soldiers held the center. In the British colony of Massachusetts Bay, all able-bodied men between the ages of 16 and 60 had to enlist in their local militia.
[2] As early as 1645, some men were selected from the Massachusetts Bay Colony from the general ranks of the city`s “training bands” to be ready for rapid deployment. The men thus selected were called Minutemen. They were usually recruited by the settlers of each city, and so it was very common for them to fight alongside relatives and friends. On September 7, 1643, the cities gained more tactical control. A new rule allowed any general to call up his militia at any time. On August 12, 1645, 30% of all militias were converted into short-term groups (Minutemen). Command and control were decentralized to such an extent that individual company commanders could place their troops in a defensive battle if necessary. Part of the militia was well trained and well equipped and designed as a task force. Most colonial militia units were not given weapons or uniforms and had to equip themselves. Many simply wore their own peasant or laborer clothes, and in some cases they wore cloth hunting clothes. Most used poultry parts, although guns were sometimes used when available. Neither the birds nor the guns had bayonets.
Some colonies bought muskets, cartridge casings and bayonets from England and maintained armories in the colony. The first Minute Men were held in September 1774 in Worcester County, Massachusetts, when revolutionary leaders attempted to eliminate the Tories from the old militia by demanding the resignation of all officers and reorganizing the men into seven regiments with new officers. One-third of the members of each regiment had to be ready to assemble immediately under arms and were specifically called “Minutemen”. Other counties began to adopt the same system, and when the Massachusetts Provincial Congress met in Salem in October, it ordered that the reorganization be completed. The first major trial of tiny men took place at the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. On July 18, 1775, the Continental Congress recommended that other colonies organize units of Minutemen; Maryland, New Hampshire, and Connecticut are known to have joined. The 1925 Lexington-Concord sesquicentennial half dollar shows a sculptural representation. The members of the Minutemen, on the other hand, were no more than 30 years old and were chosen for their enthusiasm, political reliability and strength. They were the first armed militias to enter or wait for battle. Officers, as in the rest of the militia, were elected by popular vote, and each unit drafted an official written contract to be signed upon conscription.
With an increasing number of minutemen, they faced another problem: the lack of gunpowder to sustain an army long enough to conduct a prolonged campaign against the British. The inhabitants of a Dutch-controlled island, St. Eustatius, supported the idea of a major rebellion against the British in the New World. As a sign of support, they exchanged gunpowder to colonial masters for other goods needed in Europe. The Minutemen had a political awareness not only of events in New England, but also of anti-British sentiment in other countries such as Holland and France.