Home        Contact Salem Focus at   salemfocus@comcast.net

The Salem Common: Birthplace of the American Military

In 1628, the Massachusetts Bay Company, the English chartered company that organized and financed the settlement at Salem and established the Massachusetts Bay colony, directed Governor John Endecott to create a military organization to defend the new trading post and settlement. At the request of Endecott weapons and uniforms for 100 men were sent over in 1629. The 100-man company was to correspond to English standards and would include one captain, one lieutenant, one ensign, three sergeants, three drummers, one corporal and 90 privates. The uniform coats were green with red tape and were copies of uniforms then in use in Ireland that had been designed to serve as a form of camouflage. The company would also have at its disposal corselets or upper body armor. The complement of weapons for such a military company at the time would have typically consisted of 80 flintlocks, 10 fowling pieces, 10 larger matchlocks, 100 swords, several halberds, 60 pikes and 20 half-pikes.

All men between ages 16 and 60 were obligated to serve in the defense of the community. The first official muster of the militia, the precursor of today’s National Guard and actually the first official military group in English America was on the Salem Common in 1637.