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Private citizens in Arizona now patrol the U.S.-Mexican border, aiming to stem the tide of illegal immigrants. Some call these citizens patriots. Others call them vigilantes (or worse, racists). They call themselves the "Minuteman Project"--and invoke the memory of colonial America's most fabled citizen-soldiers.
Who were the original minutemen? What did they actually do? We've got their story--and, yes, they really did train to be ready for action in less than a minute.
Today's Knowledge
Meet the Minutemen
America's earliest militias were basically groups of paramilitary citizen-soldiers organized for the defense of the colonies. Able-bodied men, as young as 16 and as old as 60, were required to join.
As early as 1645, Massachusetts militias were supposed to designate men from each company as rapid responders, ready for action in half an hour or less. The term "minuteman" was used to refer to the rapid responders as far back as 1750. But the minutemen as a distinctive fighting force really emerged in 1774, when Massachusetts militias reorganized for the impending revolution.
That year, authorities in Worcester County fired all their militia's officers (to eliminate British sympathizers). They also improved the militia's training regimen and declared that one-third of all militiamen should "be ready to act at a minute's warning." Five days later, the town of Concord voted to establish a similar force. Towns and counties across the colonies followed suit, and the "minutemen" became the elite irregular troops of the fledgling American nation.
Rapid Rebels
Ex-minuteman Thomas Brown recalled that these elite fighters had "to hold themselves continually in readiness to turn out at a moment's warning . . . in whatever place their services might be required." Pre-Revolutionary War militias generally met only once a year--and then mainly for drinks, tall tales, and target shooting. But the new minuteman units drilled two, three, or even four times a week.
They were the most active and physically capable men available. Most were under 20 years old, though their ranks also included fathers and even grandfathers--experienced veterans and greenhorns alike. In some companies, half a dozen relatives fought side by side. Among the hundred or so Lexington minutemen, a dozen were father-son teams and three were men over 60.
About a third of all minutemen were veterans of the French and Indian War, where they had learned guerrilla tactics. Most supplied their own firearms, and--like the rest of America's militiamen--they elected officers from their own ranks. This improved morale and ensured that officers who were not sufficiently anti-British quickly lost their jobs.
"The Shot Heard 'Round the World"
Minutemen from Lexington, Massachusetts, fought the first battle of the American Revolution. On the morning of April 19, 1775, a few dozen of them stood their ground on Lexington Common, awaiting the approach of several hundred British soldiers. The British had been ordered to march to Concord and to capture the town's stockpiled weapons. Along the way, they were supposed to stop in Lexington and arrest John Hancock and Sam Adams.
According to an American who survived the fight, when the British soldiers came in sight of the minutemen blocking their path, a British officer yelled, "Lay down your arms, you damned rebels, or you are all dead men." Although they were outnumbered at least seven to one, the minutemen refused to lower their muskets.
No one knows for sure who fired first. Eight Americans were dead and ten wounded during the battle, which ended when the remaining minutemen retreated into the woods. No British soldiers were killed. Hancock and Adams had already fled, so the British marched on to Concord--into a shootout with three or four hundred militiamen at the town's North Bridge.
The British soldiers withdrew, but as they marched back to Boston, minutemen and other local guerrillas shot them to pieces. British losses from the Battle of Lexington and Concord ultimately totaled 73 dead and 174 wounded. The American Revolution had begun.
