The Mass. origins of the National Guard

With all the back-and-forth about Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz’s National Guard Service, you might like to know that the origins of the U.S. National Guard can be traced back to December 1636, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony ordered the creation of three militia regiments to protect the new colony. Seen here is the first muster, in the spring of 1637, of the new force’s East Regiment, in Salem.

Thus the Bay Colony led the way in the creation of the militias eventually established by all American colonies. Some of the units ended up fighting in the Revolutionary War.

Note the Massachusetts Minute Man symbol.