Colonial Militia

In 1629, the fledgling settlement at Salem in Massachusetts Bay received, along with the royal charter, a shipment of green and red uniforms, drums, and weapons to form a defensive militia. In 1636, the General Court organized approximately 1900 men of the colonial forces into three regiments: East, South, and North. In February 1637, the East Regiment drilled on Salem Common in an event recognized as the beginning of the modern National Guard. The lineage of the East Regiment is today carried forward by the 10th Engineer Battalion of the Massachusetts National Guard. Across the past four centuries, as boundaries and politics changed and threats came and went, members of the community in Essex County repeatedly stepped forward to serve and protect their neighbors and homeland, continuing a patriotic heritage that dates to the colony’s earliest days.

Salem, Massachusetts · United States