The light infantry companies participated in the same parades and public festal occasions as did the artillery companies. These events are elsewhere described in sufficient detail. In the sterner task of maintaining public order the New England Guards were on duty twice--July 7, 1824, and Feb. 11, 1825,--in connection with conflagrations. In both instances personal property had been saved from the fire and temporarily deposited in a place of safety; and the troops mounted guard against pillagers. The Tigers subscribed the first $100 toward the cost of Bunker Hill monument. From the disbandment of Maj. Messinger’s battalion in 1810 until the organization of the regiment of light infantry in 1834, the companies of light infantry were associated only in the larger unit of the 3d Brigade. While the Coast Artillery includes all the surviving units of that Brigade, and altho the 3d Brigade was the most solid and efficient part of the old militia, still it does not seem wise to treat Brigade history in particular detail. Suffice it to say that four strong companies of light infantry continued active in the infantry regiments of the brigade--the Fusiliers in the 1st Regiment, the Tigers and the New England Guards in the 2d, and the Winslow Blues in the 3d. Lists of company commanders are recorded elsewhere. A new branch of the service came into existence, the “Rifles,” and were accorded precedence over others--were given the right of the line in parades. In appearance they differed from other troops, as they wore jaunty green uniforms, and carried short flint-lock rifles without bayonets. These riflemen aimed to reproduce the famous corps under Daniel Morgan and others in the Revolutionary war, the frontiersmen and rangers clad in buckskin hunting-shirts who were so terrifying to America’s enemies. It has always seemed strange to the writer that the frontiersman’s costume, the only distinctively American garb ever devised, should not continue in use. Not even these new riflemen, however, succeeded in remaining true to type. While they were fond of picturing themselves in the hunting-shirt, the uniforms which they actually wore followed German models. One valuable contribution the new rifles did make to militia life, they were pioneers in setting up target practice as part of the soldier’s training.