The effectiveness of this method of enlistment can best be judged by the fact, officially verified, that commissions had been issued to the officers of fifteen regiments, they having at that time the proper complement of men. It could not be expected, under the conditions that prevailed, that an army so hastily gotten together and formed from small local organizations, totally unused to acting in masses under any military system as regiments or brigades, should have presented, either in the matter of discipline or equipment, anything that would commend itself to the trained military man. One thing, however, all those who had assembled, whether as minute-men or militia, possessed in common; and that was the patriotic determination to resist by every means in their power any further encroachment upon their rights and liberties. A goodly number of the recruits and many of the officers had served in the expeditions against Canada; and these were sufficient to leaven the mass, and communicate by example and precept something of the military spirit to their younger comrades who had never rendered service in the field. At that time the army was a Massachusetts army, and in fact it is so termed in the official documents. The regiments were really what would be designated in these days as State regiments, being enlisted, officered, and maintained entirely by Massachusetts. There was no lack of officers of the higher grades, as there were provided in addition to the general officers previously named as having been appointed in making the establishment for the organization of the army, May 23, 1775, one lieutenant-general, two major-generals, four brigadier-generals, two adjutant-generals, and two quartermaster-generals.