MANNERS AND CUSTOMS IN HOPKINTON.
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��to the imperative character of soldierly discipline. In some instances, the ex- cellence in tactics was eminently supe- rior. The best skill depended upon the executive character of the commanders. The system of general military practice sometimes developed officers that could direct a company through a variety of evolutions without speaking a word, the motion of the sword designating the order of movement. Col. William Col- by, of this town, was one thus skilled. The use of gunpowder was not legally exacted upon the instance of parade, though powder was sometimes used by popular agreement, or custom. The sham-fight, a favorite exercise of muster day, was an occasion of much blank fir- ing, when the whole regiment — cavalry, artillery, infantry and riflemen — divided in the semblance of two hostile bands, struggled in a grand melee for the hon- ors of a quasi victory.
The legitimate programme of a sham fight implied the attempt of a contend- ing force to surround and capture another, or to display its own ranks so skillfully as to prevent a surprisal, while all the time a great deploy of tumultu- ous gunnery was indulged. Such con- tests were always exciting and liable at any time to end in a riotous demonstra- tion of local pride and jealousy. Local feuds engendered in sham fights were often perennial in duration, developing at times into such a fever of animosity that the officers of the regiment were impelled to make prudence the better part of valor and dispense with the fight altogether, lest it should become too dangerously real in character.*
- The dangerous heat of military enthu-
siasm was once emphatically illustrated by the boys of this town. Two rival companies of amateur militia — respective- ly from the upper and lower villages — met on the highway, in what is now the Gage district, and contended so desperate- ly that the populace became alarmed and caused the arrest of the combat. The commanders of these companies were Benjamin Jewell, of the upper, and Ham- ilton E. Perkins, of the lower village. There was also about this time a third company of boys in the Blackwater dis- tinct; it was commanded by Samuel B. Straw.
��The time appropriated to a company training was generally half of a day. A general muster of the regiment occupied a whole day. No legal provision was made for the conveyance of soldiers to the place of rendevouz, and individuals often straggled along on the way to the training or muster field, their gay uni- forms making them the observed of all observers. Since the place of the regi- mental muster alternated among the different towns represented in the com- mand, the distance required to reach it often demanded a start of many hours in advance. The spot reached, both the tents of the regiment, and private or tavern accommodations were often required to lodge the troops. Experi- ences akin to the actual life of war were often realized in this military housing. Muster service was at best a hard one, and many a youth who looked forward with fond anticipation to the time when he, too, should be a happy soldier, lived to count the years that must pass away so slowly before he should be ex- empt from a duty that had become as irksome as it had once seemed fascinat- ing. The duties of a common soldier of militia were performed without pay,* though he received his dinner, or its equivalent, on muster days. At first, the town provided a dinner of bread and beef for the regiment at muster ; later, an equivalent of thirty-one cents was allowed ; last, fifty cents were ap- propriated as a means of a soldier's re- freshment. In later times, also, the members of uniformed companies re- ceived each a compensation of $1.50 a year, paid them at muster, and immedi- ately after satisfactory inspection, by the selectmen. The sum paid was reckoned as the equivalent of fifty cents for each of two attendances at company training and one at muster.
Music is always regarded as an aid to the metrical execution of military drill. For the support of martial music,
♦Commissioned officers of militia re- ceived no salary, but received such other compensation as was given to privates of the same command. They could be ex- empted from military duty, however, after an official service of a term of years.
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