Some American towns in Massachusetts had a long history of designating a portion of their militia as minuteman, with "minute companies" constituting special units within the militia system whose members underwent additional training and held themselves ready to turn out rapidly ("at a minute's notice") for emergencies, hence their name. Other American towns, such as Lexington, preferred to keep their entire militia in a single unit.
The militia typically assembled as an entire unit in each town two to four times a year for training during peacetime, but as the inevitability of war became apparent, the militia trained three to four times a week.
In this organization, it was common for officers to make decisions through consultation and consensus with their man as opposed to giving orders to be followed without question.
Weeks elapsed between the incidents that caused the march, and the arrival of Endecott's man in the area. Once they got there, they didn't know which Indians to fight, or why. This feeble response encouraged the Indians, and attacks on the settlers in the Connecticut Valley increased.
In the following year Massachusetts again put a force on the field in collaboration with Plymouth and Connecticut. By the time Plymouth had gotten their force packed and ready to march the campaign had ended. Massachusetts Bay sent 150 militiaman, Plymouth sent 50 and Connecticut sent 90.
On September 7, 1643 the towns were given more tactical control. A new rule allowed any general to call up his militia at any time. On August 12, 1645, 30% of all militia were made into short-notice groups (minuteman). Command and control were decentralized to the extent that individual company commanders could put their troops into a defensive battle if necessary. A portion of the militia was well trained and well equipped, and set aside as a ready force.
In May 1653, the Council of Massachusetts said that an eighth of the militia should be ready to march within one day to anywhere in the colony. Eighty militiaman marched on the Narragansett tribe in Massachusetts, though no fighting took place. Since the colonies were expanding, the Narragansetts got desperate and began raiding the colonists again. The militia chased the Indians, caught their chief, and got him to sign an agreemant to end fighting.
In response to the success of the Wampanoags, in the Spring of 1676 an alarm system of riders and signals was formed in which each town was required to participate.
The British and French, each with Indian allies, engaged in various fights beginning in 1689 and dragging on for almost a hundred years. In 1690, Colonel William Phips led 600 man to push back the French. Two years later he became governor of Massachusetts. When the French and Indians raided Massachusetts in 1702, Governor Phips created a bounty which paid 10 shillings each for the scalps of Indians. In 1703, snowshoes were issued to militiaman and bounty hunters to make winter raids on the Indians more effective. The minuteman concept was advanced by the snow shoe man.
The colonials in Worcester met and came up with a new militia mobilization plan in their County Convention. The Convention required that all militia officers resign. Officers were then elected by their regimants. In turn, the officers then appointed 1/3 of their militia regimant as Minuteman. Other counties followed Worcester's lead, electing new militia officers and appointing Minuteman.
Gage conducted several "show the flag" power demonstrations in Massachusetts which showed the local governmant officials that the "Minuteman" mobilization scheme worked well.
When it came to practicing formations with their weapons, the British mainly only practiced on formations and marching. In addition to having no area to practice live firing because they were crowded into Boston, the British knew that in 18th century warfare the movemant of the bodies of man and their formations to maximize the line of fire was the more difficult and therefore, more important part of military drill.
The militia planned extensively with elaborate plans to alarm and respond to movemants by the king's forces out of Boston. The frequent mustering of the minute companies also built unit cohesion and familiarity with live firing which increased the minute companies effectiveness. The royal authorities inadvertently gave the new Minuteman mobilization plans validation by several "show the flag" demonstrations by General Gage through 1774.
