voted the required number, and
chose a committee of war authorized to impress provisions, munitions,
stores, clothing, tools, and other necessaries, for which fair prices
were to be paid within six months. The Governor issued a proclamation
calling for volunteers. If the full number did not appear within the
time named, the colonels of militia were ordered to muster their
regiments, and immediately draft out of them men enough to meet the
need. A bounty of six dollars was offered this year to stimulate
enlistment, and the pay of a private soldier was fixed at one pound six
shillings a month, Massachusetts currency. If he brought a gun, he had
an additional bounty of two dollars. A powderhorn, bullet-pouch,
blanket, knapsack, and "wooden bottle," or canteen, were supplied by the
province; and if he brought no gun of his own, a musket was given him,
for which, as for the other articles, he was to account at the end of
the campaign. In the next year it was announced that the soldier should
receive, besides his pay, "a coat and soldier's hat." The coat was of
coarse blue cloth, to which breeches of red or blue were afterwards
added. Along with his rations, he was promised a gill of rum each day, a
privilege of which he was extremely jealous, deeply resenting every
abridgment of it. He was enlisted for the campaign, and could not be
required to serve above a year at farthest.

[Footnote 391: _Letter and Order Books of Winslow, 1756._]

The complement of a regiment was five hundred, divided into companies of
fifty; and as the men and officers of each were drawn from the same
neighborhood, they generally knew each other. The officers, though
nominally appointed by the Assembly, were for the most part the virtual
choice of the soldiers themselves, from whom they were often
indistinguishable in character and social standing. Hence discipline was
weak. The pay--or, as it was called, the wages--of a colonel was twelve
pounds sixteen shillings, Massachusetts currency, a month; that of a
captain, five pounds eight shillings,--an advance on the pay of the last
year; and that of a chaplain, six pounds eight shillings.[392] Penalties
were enacted against "irreligion, immorality, drunkenness, debauchery,
and profaneness." The ordinary punishments were the wooden horse, irons,
or, in bad cases, flogging.

[Footnote 392: _Vote of General Court, 26 Feb. 1756._]

Much difficulty arose from the different rules adopted by the various
col