Meanwhile the New England men, strengthened by the levies of New York, were mustering at Albany for the attack of Crown Point.  At the end of May they moved a short distance up the Hudson, and encamped at a place called Half-Moon, where the navigation was stopped by rapids.  Here and at the posts above were gathered something more than five thousand men, as raw and untrained as those led by Johnson in the summer before.[391] The four New England colonies were much alike in their way of raising and equipping men, and the example of Massachusetts may serve for them all.  The Assembly or “General Court” voted the required number, and chose a committee of war authorized to impress provisions, munitions, stores, clothing, tools, and other necessaries, for which fair prices were to be paid within six months.  The Governor issued a proclamation calling for volunteers.  If the full number did not appear within the time named, the colonels of militia were ordered to muster their regiments, and immediately draft out of them men enough to meet the need.  A bounty of six dollars was offered this year to stimulate enlistment, and the pay of a private soldier was fixed at one pound six shillings a month, Massachusetts currency.  If he brought a gun, he had an additional bounty of two dollars.  A powderhorn, bullet-pouch, blanket, knapsack, and “wooden bottle,” or canteen, were supplied by the province; and if he brought no gun of his own, a musket was given him, for which, as for the other articles, he was to account at the end of the campaign.  In the next year it was announced that the soldier should receive, besides his pay, “a coat and soldier’s hat.”  The coat was of coarse blue cloth, to which breeches of red or blue were afterwards added.  Along with his rations, he was promised a gill of rum each day, a privilege of which he was extremely jealous, deeply resenting every abridgment of it.  He was enlisted for the campaign, and could not be required to serve above a year at farthest.

[Footnote 391:  Letter and Order Books of Winslow, 1756.]

The complement of a regiment was five hundred, divided into companies of fifty; and as the men and officers of each were drawn from the same neighborhood, they generally knew each other.  The officers, though nominally appointed by the Assembly, were for the most part the virtual choice of the soldiers themselves, from whom they were often indistinguishable in character and social standing.  Hence discipline was weak.  The pay—­or, as it was called, the wages—­of a colonel was twelve pounds sixteen shillings, Massachusetts currency, a month; that of a captain, five pounds eight shillings,—­an advance on the pay of the last year; and that of a chaplain, six pounds eight shillings.[392] Penalties were enacted against “irreligion, immorality, drunkenness, debauchery, and profaneness.”  The ordinary punishments were the wooden horse, irons, or, in bad cases, flogging.

[Footnote 392:  Vote of General Court, 26 Feb. 1756.]