unit in each town two to four times a year with the Minutemen receiving extra training. From the end of the French and Indian War, this was normal during peacetime but, in the 1770s, as friction with the Crown increased and the possibility of war became apparent, the militia trained three to four times a week. In response to these tensions, the Massachusetts Provincial legislators found that the colony's militia resources were short just before the American Revolutionary War, on October 26, 1774, after observing the British military buildup. They found that, "including the sick and absent, it amounted to about 17,000 men, far short of the number wanted, that the council recommended an immediate application to the New England governments to make up the deficiency", resolving to re-organize and increase the size of the militia: As per the section below, the Massachusetts legislature was stymied by Governor Hutchinson from passing a bill so resisting legislators (Samuel Adams being among the leaders) set up Committees of Correspondence (in parallel with their comrades in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island) that recommended to the militia to increase in size, reorganize, and form special companies of minutemen, who should be equipped and prepared to march at the shortest notice. These minutemen were to comprise one-quarter of the whole militia, to be enlisted under the direction of the field-officers, and divide into companies, consisting of at least 50 men each. The privates were to choose their captains and subalterns, and these officers were to form the companies into battalions, and chose the field-officers to command the same. Hence the minute-men became a body distinct from the rest of the militia, and, by being more devoted to military exercises, they acquired skill in the use of arms. More attention than formerly was likewise bestowed on the training and drilling of militia. The need for efficient minuteman companies was illustrated by the Powder Alarm of 1774. Militia companies were called out to engage British troops, who had been sent to capture ammunition stores. By the time the militia was ready, the British regulars had already captured the arms at Cambridge and Charlestown and had returned to Boston. The reorganization increased the total size of the militia as well. During the French and Indian Wars, the counties in the New England colonies had provided provincial regiments to the armies of the Crown. In Massachusetts, Middlesex county