Partly because it is the oldest company, and partly because it has
always been made up of men who “do things,” the 1st Company possesses by
far the finest collection of historical valuables of all the regiment.
Indeed fully one-half of the regimental museum is already collected, and
belongs to Capt. Joseph H. Hurney’s organization. In their room one sees
Capt. J. J. Spooner’s original commission signed in 1784 by Gov. John
Hancock, the first flag carried by the company--a flag with fourteen
stars, the complete parchment roll of members from the very beginning, a
drum which helped to keep up the company’s courage at Blackburn’s Ford
and Bull Run, specimen uniforms and arms showing the development of
military skill and taste during each period of the company’s history,
and a small cannon captured by Washington from the British at Yorktown
in 1781, and at Williamsburg in 1862 taken from the Confederates by a
company of ours.
Shooting, military and athletic trophies almost without number adorn the
walls of Headquarters and of each company room; but these can hardly be
included in a regimental museum. The 6th and 7th Companies hold Knox
trophies as proof of their preeminent excellence in artillery work, and
will doubtless resent any suggestion of contributing them to anyone
else; certainly other companies have been trying hard enough to get
this, and have not succeeded even for a single year. But the museum will
have the 2d Company’s original drum, dated 1798, and with it the first
flag. Their most valuable possession is a Stuart oil portrait of their
“patron saint,” George Washington. The same company also display a set
of ancient by-laws inherited from their predecessor, the Independent
Light Infantry, and perhaps also a set of their ancient breast-plates.
If more is demanded, members of the company will fill their lungs and
emit the old “tiger” yell or growl; and this is certain to prove
sufficient so far as the 2d Company is concerned. The 3d Company room
does not contain much of historical interest. Their proudest possession
is an entry on the records of the Governor’s Council dated May 11, 1787,
wherein it appears that a petition presented by Thomas Adams and
fifty-three others was granted, and that a military company, the
Independent Boston Fusiliers, was formally established in the eyes of
the law. On the following Fourth of July the Fusiliers received their
charter from Gov. James Bowdoin, while formed on the slope of Bunker
Hill, and forthwith regaled themselves as guests at the hospitable table
of Gov. (to be) John Hancock. Maj. James W. H. Myrick, Commander of the
Fusilier Veteran Association, is custodian of the original 3d Company
records.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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