The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-08-02
TIE GOVERNORS FOOT GUARD.
An Interesting Sketch of It's Career.

An interesting Sketch or It's career.
The first company of the Governor Foot
Guard is Hartford institution now long past
its centennial celebration, but fourishing as
vigorously as ever and furnishing in the mat
ter of drill and discipline an example worthy
of imitation by any Of the later formed militia
companies. It was originally chartered in
III under circumstances sufficiently shown
by the first cau SO Of the petition addressed at
that Itime to the General Assembly The
statement was as follows:
"The Memorial of us, the Subscribers,
Humbly Sheweth That it is with Considerable
Expense and Trouble that the Standing Mill
tary Companys in Hartford EquiD themselves
to wait on the General Assembly at the General
Elections and that their Turns come but once
in many Years-and then it is with Difficulty
they are able to perform said Duty so as to do
Honour to the Ceremony-a that your
Memorialists Conceive it would be for the
Honour of Government that Company be
Constituted to perform said service and Cere-
mony Constantly, and that your Mem orialists
are willing to Undertake Said Task and Duty,
&C."
The petition was granted promptly enough
and a charter given to what was then the Gov
ernors foot guard but has since received
change of corporate name on account of the
formation of second foot company, and two
companies of horse BY the terms of their Or
ganization the Foot Guard were not liable to
be called out for actual service unless in at
tendance on the Governor in person. When,
however, in 1777 word came that Burgoyne
was on his triumphant course from Canada,
the guard unanimously volunteered to go to
the. front and did go, and the enemy retired.
From its rst,organization the company has
been made up of the better and more solid class
of citizens, and the names of surprising num-
Der of well-known and prominent men in Hart
ford may be found ON its rolls, They do not
lose their interest in it when they finally re-
tire from the active company for there large
veteran association which holds occasional
meetings and generally turns out a good dele
CATION when there is any special display or
still more enthusiastically when there is to be
an excursion. Quite as noticeable as the in
terest felt in the organization by its members
is the fact that there has been no break or ces-
sation in its performance of the special duties
contemplated in its formation. From that
time tothis no Governor has been installed in
OillCO Wltnouu tu0 1ttouuduCo "a LILO EOOt
Guard 1t is an uninterrupted service of ITO
years. Not only these election parades but
the duty of the Guard to turn out on any
great and formal occasion on order of the Gov
ernor have given it an opportunity to see it
play its own part in many interesting occasions.
Such was the reception Of the French army
under the Count dc Rochambeau at the time
the famous conference at Hartford September
90 1850, at which were present the French
general, Admiral Terney, Washington, Gov
ernor Trumbull, Lafayette, Knox and others
of the men who were famous in that long
struggle of the Revolution Such also was the
celebration in honor of the establishment of
peace at the,end of the struggle, and many
others might be pointed out, of greater or less
Importance, at which the Foot Guard played
an important part and comported itself with
the dignity of age and the activity of youth.
There has for many years been a vexed
question as to the origin of the dress uniform
worn by the company. Careful inquiry has
never absolutely settled the question, but,there
seems quite sufficient reason to suppose that it
is substantially the same as that first adopted
by the company. A certain Major French, an
English officer, writing in 1776 of Connect
cut election day parade, used the following
expression: i"He (the Governor) marched in
great state, escorted by his guards, in scarlet
turned up with black The description fits
the uniform now worn and there is no record
of any change having been made in the style
since the company was formed There is also
tradition that the uniform was patterned af-
TO hot IF fba n,,- Thn e.
tigue uniform was adopted some eight or ten
years ago.
Early in the present century there was a re-
organization of the command which gave a
captain, two ieutenants, one ensign, eight
sergeants, eight corporals, fourteen musicians,
six ffers, four drummers, and ninety-six pri-
Yates, making total of 40, a very large in
crease of the original number as provided by
the charter. A few years later it was proyid-
ed the captain of the company should fave
the rank of major. 1t was the proper thing to
make much of the dignity of office and the
feeling finds an excellent illustration in story
that is told of Major Isaac D. Bull, who, after
his own retirement, said to newly elected
major, 81 understa nd that you have been pre-
NOTED to the command of the First company
Governors Foot Guard. Do you real
ize the dignity to which you have attained?
The Governor himself is your only superior
The pompous assertion of dignity has passed
ay,,but good deal of the real solid founda.
ton on which it rested remains and must re-
main in an organization that counts as many
years and as many past honors as the Foot
Guard. Ten years ago now the Guard cele-
brated its centennial, with speeches and
poems and toasts, and already large part OF
the command is made up of men who have
| joined since that time. The second hundred
years Of its lease of life is already so far ad-
| vanced that the ceremonies that marked the
| close of the first period are beginning to be
| forgotten.