Minutemen

Examples of Minutemen in the following topics:

• The Second Amendment

  • Ideals that helped to inspire the Second Amendment in part are symbolized by the minutemen.

• Lexington and Concord

  • These minutemen, many of whom were veterans of the French and Indian War, played an important role in the war for independence.
  • In one instance, General Gage seized munitions in Cambridge and Charlestown, but when he arrived to do the same in Salem, his troops were met by a large crowd of minutemen and had to leave empty-handed.
  • In New Hampshire, minutemen took over Fort William and Mary and confiscated weapons and cannons there.
  • When the British troops entered Lexington on the morning of April 19, they found about 80 minutemen formed up on the village common.
  • Shots were exchanged, eight minutemen were killed, the outnumbered colonial militia dispersed, and the British moved on to Concord.

• Colonial Armed Forces

  • Minutemen were members of teams of select men from the American colonial partisan militia during the American Revolutionary War.
  • The minutemen constituted about a quarter of the entire militia.
  • The success of minutemen at Lexington and Concord is offset by the long history of failures of the colonial militia.
  • As a precaution, these items were often hidden or left behind by minutemen in fields, wooded areas, or private residences.

• Fighting for Liberty

  • At the time of the American Revolution, some blacks had already been enlisted as Minutemen.
  • In March 1775, the Continental Congress assigned units of the Massachusetts militia as Minutemen.