Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/413

 COLONIAL INIILITIA. 329 the Interposition of their Neighbours is become Necessary — In Consideration whereof it is Voted that the Representa- tives of this Town at the Next Session of the Assembly in this Colony Do to the utmost of their Power endeavour that Part of said money in said General Treasury be appropriated to and for the use of the said Town in Such manner as said Assembly Shall think fit." In Colonial days all able-bodied male persons between the ages of sixteen and sixty years were eligible and subject to militia service in Train Bands or Companies in the several towns. Military service as the part and duty of the citizens was recognized not only as a legacy of English descent, but as a necessity in the conditions of life in the wilderness, with Indians in their midst, and the hostile French on the north- ern border. The musket was as essential to housekeeping as was the plough in husbandry. From the days of Captain Miles Standish to the Revolution, the military company was an important element in the police protection of every town. An early Colonial law compelled " every listed person" to be provided " with a good and sufficient musket of fuse, and sword or bagganett, cotouch box or bandelears, with twelve bullets fit for his piece, half a pound of powder, six good flints upon the training days," "alarm days," or other calls of the officers of the Bands or Companies. This kind of military service had accustomed the people to the simple manual of arms of those days, and made them quasi-soldiers even in times of peace, for they knew not when their King might call them into service. This preparation stood the Colonists in good stead in the stirring days of 1775. The militiamen of New England had cleaned up their old mus- kets, had provided themselves with ammunition, and had, in every place, done regular military duty, monthly, to be ready at a moment's warning for an alarm. When the British moved on Lexington and Concord on the morning of the 19th of April, 1775, the stone walls and fences along the route from Boston to Concord were alive with farmer sol- diers, who had seized their guns from the slings over the