The militia and minute-men, as reorganized and prepared in accordance with the directions of the Provincial Congress, responded with marvelous promptitude when the call to arms came. Within ten days after the battle of Lexington between fifteen and twenty thousand men had assembled at Cambridge and Roxbury. But it was an armed assemblage rather than an army. There was practically no cohesion beyond the company organization. They were not accustomed to act with other units as battalions or regiments. There was no term or limit of service prescribed or that could be required of these men that came forward in response to the alarm. Their own patriotic fervor or the persuasiveness of their officers made the measure of their stay in the service. It was, in consequence, a fluctuating force from day to day, with arrivals and departures in constant progress. The problems involved in making it a united or cohesive force for either aggression or defence would drive the modern military man frantic. Yet of necessity this force had to serve as the nucleus of the army it was proposed to raise to serve for eight months or to December 31, 1775. The method of recruiting seems odd in these days, but in reality it was simple enough and was effective at the same time. “Beating orders,” as they were called, were issued to captains and lieutenants, or rather to those desiring to be commissioned in such capacities; and, upon their securing the specified number of men agreeing to serve under them, they were accepted with their men, and their commissions assured to them. In this way the men practically chose their officers, while at the same time each officer in a regiment from the colonel down became his own recruiting officer, captains and lieutenants in order to fill up their company strength, and colonels in order to obtain their full quota of companies. No commissions were issued to any regiment until it was completed. It was this practice that caused several New Hampshire companies to be embodied in Massachusetts regiments.